Thanjavur dolls, Dindigul locks, Kandangi sarees: Meet the man behind Tamil Nadu’s GI tags journey

Six years after the applications were filed, Dindigul locks and Kandangi sarees in Tamil Nadu were finally granted their Geographical Indication (GI) tags in Chennai Thursday. With these, the number of products in Tamil Nadu with GI tags has now risen to 30. Of these, applications for 18 GI tags were filed by Chennai-based GI attorney for Tamil Nadu, Sanjai Gandhi. Advertising Speaking to Indianexpress.com, Sanjai Gandhi, the president of the Intellectual Property Rights Attorney Association (IPR) said that having a GI tag for a product is important since it grants the manufacturers of the product the authority and exclusive rights to produce the product in the particular region. Having a GI tag also helps consumers know that similar products which do not have the GI tag sticker and are sold around the globe are merely imitations or fake products. “More than 500 registrations have been handed to individuals so far,” said Gandhi. The advocate was recently appointed as a Nodal Officer for the promotion of GI products in Tamil Nadu by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami. According to the World Trade Organisation, GI tags are place names (in some countries, also words associated with a place) which are used to identify products that come from these places and have these characteristics. The quality, reputation and other characteristics of a product can be determined by the place it comes from. News Source :- https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chennai/thanjavur-dolls-dindigul-locks-kandangi-sarees-meet-the-man-behind-tamil-nadus-gi-tags-journey-5953825/