Unit 6: General Introduction to Other Types of Intellectual Properties
6.1 Geographical Indication (GI)
A geographical indication is a sign that identifies a good as originating in a territory, where a given quality, reputation or characteristic of the good is essentially attributable to that origin. Classic examples: champagne, Roquefort, Darjeeling tea. Nepal’s own candidates are obvious — the mountain rices (the Jumli Marshi face), the Ilam tea face, the pashmina and yak-wool products, the Khukuri, and the Newar metal craft tradition. The GI’s logic: the place, not a person, is the creator. The right is therefore collective (all qualifying producers of the region may use it) and non-transferable (the sign cannot move with a business that leaves the soil). The instruments: the Paris Convention’s indications-of-source faces, the Lisbon Agreement, and TRIPS Articles 22–24 (with the higher protection for wines and spirits). Nepal’s gap: there is no standalone GI statute (the TRIPS-gap of U1.6.3); the early GI-registration practice has run under the existing industrial-property machinery and collective-mark faces, while the Industrial Property Bill’s GI chapter remains the long-pending answer.
6.2 Layout Design of Integrated Circuits (LDIC)
The semiconductor’s IP: the layout design (mask work) — the three-dimensional disposition of the circuit’s elements and interconnections. The instruments: the Washington Treaty 1989 (the WIPO base) and TRIPS Articles 35–37 (protection on the layout’s own terms; the innocent-infringement liability limit; the reverse-engineering and exhaustion exceptions). Nepal’s face: no dedicated statute (the LDC transition absorbs the pressure), a small practical stake today — but a real policy stake for any future electronics and design industry.
6.3 Trade Secrets
6.3.1 Confidential Information
The law of confidence protects information given or generated in a relationship of trust: business secrets, customer lists, strategies and know-how. The duty arises from the relationship (employee, adviser, confidant) and survives its end. The remedies: injunction, account of profits, return or destruction of the material.
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