Establishment of Geographical Indications Registry 08 Mar 2019 The Geographical Indications Act 2014 was passed in Parliament on 14 April 2014. This paves the way for a Geographical Indications (“GI”) registry to be established. Producers of GI products, associations of such producers and the relevant competent authorities will be entitled to file applications for registration in relation to certain categories of agricultural products and foodstuffs. The Geographical Indications Rules 2019, which come into operation on 1 April 2019, govern the operational aspects of the GI registry, and will comprise the process of application, examination and registration of a GI, as well as provide for dispute resolution procedures. These Rules, which bear structural similarity to the Trade Mark Rules, provide that all applications for GI registration will undergo a three-stage process similar to trade mark applications. (1) An application for registration must be submitted. (2) The application will be examined to ascertain that it fulfils the criteria for registration. (3) The application will be published for a period of time to give third parties an opportunity to object to the registration. At the time of writing, the date from which the Registry will accept GI applications has not been announced.