Geographical Indications and Culinary Contests: Analysing the Claims of Bengal vs. Odisha Rasgulla/Rasagola and the PISCO Struggle in South America

  • Amisha Mittal and Shubhi Agrawal
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  • Amisha Mittal

    Student at Jindal Global Law School, Haryana, India

  • Shubhi Agrawal

    Student at Jindal Global Law School, Haryana, India

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Abstract

This paper examines the controversies and competing claims surrounding Geographical Indications (GIs), focusing on two specific cases: the battle between West Bengal and Odisha over the origin of Rasgulla, a popular Indian sweet, and the ongoing tensions between two South American countries namely Chile and Peru, over an alcoholic beverage called PISCO. The authors argue that the disputes over GIs extend beyond economic value and delve into cultural and historical interests. They explore the complexities of obtaining a GI tag for Rasgulla, analysing the conflicting claims, and discussing the distinction between a recipe and a GI to come to the conclusion on whether Rasgulla as a dish should be awarded a GI tag at the first place. The paper also highlights the need for clear guidelines to differentiate between unique food products and generic recipes, drawing insights from the European concept of "Traditional Specialities Guaranteed" (TSG). To draw a similar analogy, the authors also take in account the dispute between Chile and Peru regarding PISCO which is an alcoholic beverage and dwell into many other contesting GI claims around the world. In the end, it is concluded that the controversies surrounding GIs are driven by cultural passion rather than serving the interests of manufacturers.

Type

Research Paper

Information

International Journal of Law Management and Humanities, Volume 6, Issue 3, Page 3617 - 3631

DOI: https://doij.org/10.10000/IJLMH.115298

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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution -NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits remixing, adapting, and building upon the work for non-commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited.

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