Komal Chaul – A Potential Candidate for Geographical Indication

It is essential to protect bio-cultural products from being unduly patented and from biopiracy. Identification of a Geographical Indication (GI) itself is not a measure to stop bio-cultural biopiracy and is not an automatic protection to any biocultural product; it must be tested against the characteristics of GI. Identified GI must be seen through the bio-cultural protocol that makes it a ready candidate for GI application. This paper presents a step-by-step procedure for identifying and testing of a GI candidate and a walk-through GI candidature, application and registration steps. The case study taken for the purpose of identification is for ‘Komal Chaul’, a suitable candidate for GI from Assam, located in North-Eastern part of India, yet to be registered for GI. The case-study testing proves that this bio-cultural product, i.e. ‘Komal Chaul’ may be registered for GI successfully.