The interaction between humans and nature gives rise to several philosophies as a results of thoughtful processes by man. These ideas or viewpoints over a period may become a valuable resource to be exploited for economic benefits. Such creations of the mind are known as intellectual property (IP).
How important is it to Protect Intellectual Property Rights?
Mark Getty, (“Blood and Oil,” The Economist, March 4, 2000) once said: “Intellectual property is the oil of the 21st century. Look at the richest men a hundred years ago; they all made their money extracting natural resources or moving them around. All today’s richest men have made their money out of intellectual property.”
Protecting intellectual property became eminent at the end of the 20th century, although the concept had existed a century earlier. Though intangible, numerous controversies usually characterise IPs. Therefore, legal protection was to ensure that originators maintained their ownership rights and could take legal actions against anyone who uses them without permission. Hence IPs could be sold, bought, rented or given away. Protection of IPs encourage and nurture technological innovations while creating the right environment for investor interests and a thriving system which allows for proper exploitation by organizations, individuals and national economies leading to greater prospects for citizens.
IPs are well developed and applied in many areas outside the Agrifood business industry. The most common examples include: Inventions and discoveries usually in the electronics and auto industry, songs, music, pieces of literature, photos, videos, web content and other artistic works and paintings, commercial product names, images, symbols, designs, phrases, just to mention a few. However, for the purposes of this article, I shall focus more on the IP that is used for agricultural, natural and manufactured goods having special quality and established reputation in the Agrifood industry: Geographical Indications (GIs).
What is Geographical Indications (GIs)?
There are two main categories of Intellectual Property Rights: Industrial Rights (Trademarks, Patents, Trade secrets and Geographical Indications) and Copyrights and Related Rights. GIs are a component of the industrial rights as illustrated in the Fig. 1.
Figure 1: GIs as part of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). Source: www.fibre2fashion.com.
A GI is a form of intellectual property right (IPR) which is of great interest to international trade. GIs are names, signs or logos of places (localities, regions or territories) used to identify the origin, quality, reputation or other characteristics of products. GIs differ from all the other forms of intellectual property rights named above. In Article 22 (1) of the TRIPS Agreement of WTO, GIs are “indications which identify a good as originating in the territory of a member, or a region or locality in that territory, where a given quality, reputation or other characteristic of the good is essentially attributable to its geographical origin” (WIPO, 2013). By the TRIPS definition, Fig. 2 illustrates what should characterise a GI.
Figure 2: GI Concept as described in Article 22 (1).
GIs originated from a concept known as “Terroir” a French word which refers to the unusual quality of an agricultural product mainly determined by the character of the place it comes from. The peculiar quality could be due to (1). Biophysical properties of the place: micro climate (e.g. seasonal temperatures, humidity levels, wind, sun exposure); (2). The physical-chemical properties of soils and/or water; (3). Altitude; local animal breed or plant species (which adapt to a specific environment over time); (4). The traditional know-how and (5). Skills and equipment for production. The goods and products having registered as GIs are recognised for their origin, quality and reputation and gives it a competitive advantage on the global market above similar products that are not GI registered.
Economic Benefits of GIs
Studies have shown that GIs are tools for the sustainable development of food systems. The concept is territorial and encourages collective strategy of producers to promote, protect their origin-linked quality product and preserve their local resources. The projected outcome is an increase in producers’ income through a better selling price, greater competitiveness and commercial advantages to producers. This benefit emanates from the “reputation effect” of the GI. Consumers become aware of the quality and assurance of consistency of the products which increase their willingness to pay and repeat purchase. The value added by actors in offering high quality, not misleading consumers, and investing product promotion assures “return of investment”, hence generates a financial benefit that goes to the producers.
A 2018 study by researchers on the economic impact of nine (9) carefully selected GIs globally, shows that on the average, GI registration for products almost doubled (in some cases tripled) the initial selling price of the product more than similar products that are not GI registered. You may look at Vandecandelaere et al., (2018). Economic impacts of Geographical Indications: worldwide evidences
GIs are more developed within the European Union. Currently, over 3,400 products have been registered in countries within the EU. In Asia, India has a total of 320 products registered as GIs.
Africa has only a few GIs in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Morocco, Guinea etc.
GIs could be registered in Ghana under class 1 (Wine, Spirit); Class 2 (Manufactured Goods, Handicraft, Food); and Class 3 (Natural Product, Mineral, Agricultural). However, it is currently not possible to register any of our identified unique products (Pona Yam, Dzomi palm oil, Sugarloaf pineapple, Kente and Smock etc.) as the country is reviewing its GI law (ACT 659) of 2003 together with its regulations for smooth implementation of the GI system in Ghana.
By: Courage Besah-Adanu
Email: kadanu2@gmail.com
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A brief profile of Courage Besah-Adanu (Ph.D.)
Courage Besah-Adanu has worked with small scale producers and local food systems since 2010. A path that has taken him to many mango farms where he measured pollination deficit for mango fruits, honey producers where he evaluated production systems, methods of value addition, physico-chemical and sensory analysis of Ghanaian honeys within global quality parameters. As a Ph.D., Courage also trained in how to explore Intellectual Property Rights (Geographical Indications, GIs) to economically benefit producers of food and products originating from a particular region or territory with peculiar characteristics and reputation. This training has enabled him to survey various products with GI potentials in Ghana using experiences he got from reviewing and analysing various parameters that characterise several GI registered food products in the EU DOOR data base (A special data base of all GI products registered in Europe) and from Literature. He is currently focusing on how Africa and Ghana can take advantage of IPR (in this case GIs) as an innovative concept to benefit its citizenry and for foreign exchange generation as a continent.