GI Tag, Trademark, Patent: The Difference That Matters for Every Maker

Ask an artisan in Bagru why their block prints carry the label ‘GI tagged Dabu’ and they will likely explain the resist dyeing method passed down through generations of Chippa families. Ask them if that GI tag is the same as a trademark, and the answer often gets less certain.

This confusion trips up creators, buyers and even policymakers, because geographical indication, trademark and patent sit under the same umbrella of intellectual property but do fundamentally different work. Knowing which one applies to a craft, a brand or an invention changes how an artisan protects their livelihood.

Three Rights With Three Different Jobs

A geographical indication protects the collective origin of a regional product. A trademark protects an individual brand identity. A patent protects a new invention. All three prevent misuse, but they protect different things, belong to different owners and follow different laws.

In India, GI rights fall under the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999. Trademarks fall under the Trade Marks Act, 1999. Patents fall under the Patents Act, 1970. 

Each is administered through the same office, the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks, which is what leads people to assume the protections overlap more than they actually do.

What a Geographical Indication Protects

A GI tag identifies a product as originating from a specific place, where a quality, reputation or characteristic is essentially owed to that place. Kanchipuram silk, Jaipur Blue Pottery and Bagru Dabu printing all carry this tag because their distinctiveness comes from local materials, water, climate or technique that cannot be replicated elsewhere.

• Governed by the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999
• Held collectively by every producer within the registered region, not by one artisan or company
• Cannot be sold, licensed or transferred outside that community
• Usually registered by a producer association, cooperative or government body
• Protects the craft's origin and reputation, not any individual maker's brand

What a Trademark Protects

A trademark distinguishes the goods or services of one business from those of every other business. It can be a name, logo, symbol or combination of these. It belongs to whoever registers it, whether an individual artisan, a workshop or a company.

• Governed by the Trade Marks Act, 1999
• Owned privately by the individual, workshop or company that registers it
• Can be sold, licensed or transferred like any other business asset
• Carries no geographical requirement, usable on any product from any location
• Protects a maker's own name or identity, not the wider craft tradition

What a Patent Protects

A patent protects an invention, a new, useful and non obvious product or process, for twenty years from the date of filing. It rewards technical innovation rather than reputation or heritage, and it is granted to whoever the inventor is or whoever they assign the right to.

Traditional techniques passed down over centuries generally cannot be patented, since patent law demands genuine novelty. But a patent could still apply within a craft cluster if an artisan develops a new tool, a modified loom mechanism or an original dye formulation that did not exist before.

Why the Distinction Counts for Artisans

A GI tag safeguards a craft as a whole against imitation from outside the region, but it will not stop a neighbouring workshop, one that legitimately practises the same technique, from using the same GI name. It also offers no protection for a specific artisan's own brand, which is where a trademark becomes essential.

Are You an Artisan?

If your craft carries a GI tag, that protection covers your tradition, not your personal identity. A neighbour making the same craft in the same GI zone can use the same GI name entirely legally. 

Building your own name, mark or signature motif, and registering it as a trademark, is what lets buyers tell your work apart from everyone else working under that same GI. Ram Gopal Saini's fight to protect Jaipur Blue Pottery shows what happens when the GI tag exists but enforcement, and individual recognition, still lag behind.

Are You a Vendor?

If you source and resell GI tagged crafts, check that the GI registration is current and that your suppliers are genuine producers within the registered region, since claiming a GI on goods sourced outside it is a punishable misrepresentation. 

Your own storefront name or private label is a separate asset, and trademarking it protects your business identity even as you work across many GI protected crafts.

Are You a Buyer?

A GI tag on a product is a claim about where and how it was made, not about who made it. A trademark tells you which workshop or brand you are buying from. Looking for both gives a fuller picture, the GI confirms the authenticity of origin, and the trademark tells you whose hands the piece actually passed through.

Protecting the Craft and the Maker

A GI tag, a trademark and a patent are not rivals, they work together. A GI tag can confirm that a saree genuinely comes from Kanchipuram, a trademark can tell a buyer which family or workshop within that tradition made it, and a patent can protect a genuine innovation within the craft. 

Understanding all three is part of what keeps a craft protected and an artisan recognised, which is the distinction For TuDuGu, traceability is exactly that, a principle built to make visible to every buyer.