AFTER THE famed Lacknawi Chikan, it’s time for “Amla ka Murabba”, terracotta work, Benarasi and Chanderi sarees appearing on the hot list of items being patented this year.
The city-based “Network for Entrepreneurship & Economic Development” (NEED) which had earlier applied for patenting Chikan work recently has now readied a host of patent applications for protecting the intellectual property rights of traditional food processors and artisans in the State.
“We have already started the documentation process for filing the patent applications for “Amla Ka Murabba”, terracotta work, Chanderi and Benarasi sarees required under the Geographical Indicator Act (GI Act)”, Anil K Singh, CEO NEED told HT Lucknow Live.
He said in case of Amla Ka Murabba the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Exports Development Authority (APEDA) had been helping with the collection of data and creation of the documentation for the patenting process.
In case of terracota work, Chanderi and Benarasi sarees, the NEED workers had been visiting the clusters where the aforesaid items are being manufactured to collect data on traditional nature of the product processes and their regional significance for documentation.
The objective behind seeking patents for the traditional food processing items and the work of artisans was to protect the identity of the products as items manufactured in Uttar Pradesh.
The Chinese onslaught on the Benarasi and Chanderi saree industry is a known fact getting hard to ignore in the country. With rising global demand for the traditional saree items, it was considered imperative to protect the intellectual property rights of rural artisans exposed to a globalised economic environment, Singh said. With the patenting of a host of other traditional products apart from Chikan, the State Government would be able to leverage its brand equity as the producer of some of the most sought after traditional items manufactured in the state, he said.
{{/usCountry}}The Chinese onslaught on the Benarasi and Chanderi saree industry is a known fact getting hard to ignore in the country. With rising global demand for the traditional saree items, it was considered imperative to protect the intellectual property rights of rural artisans exposed to a globalised economic environment, Singh said. With the patenting of a host of other traditional products apart from Chikan, the State Government would be able to leverage its brand equity as the producer of some of the most sought after traditional items manufactured in the state, he said.
{{/usCountry}}“Our focus is to protect the regional identity of products manufactured in parts of the State so that a Benarasi saree for example could only be identified to have originated from Benaras and the name “Benarasi Saree” could not be used by any other manufacturer globally to sell any product under a similar brand name, Singh added.