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.