The research adopts a theoretical mix of socio-legal analysis and economic geography to study the case of intellectual property protection of Feni , a culturally emblematic alcoholic distillation made primarily from the apple of the cashew trees in Goa, India. Presently, producers have made strong claims for protecting Feni through Geographical Indications (GIs) and both local and national government have expressed support. GIs stand out as the only instance with respect to intellectual property rights where a substantial number of Southern members of the World Trade Organisation demand stronger protection. For these countries, GIs are a means for protecting long-established cultural repertoires of production; thus, potentially beneficial for sectors like handicrafts, cottage industries and agriculture. India has been a constant advocate for stronger protection at the TRIPs Council, having been galvanised by local demand (e.g. Feni producers) and export revenues (e.g. Basmati rice and Darjeeling tea).

The study aims to understand how GIs can localise economic control. It is fascinated by the puzzle of ‘How different actors cooperate to form a GI-club?’ Members of a GI-club are interdependent: the reputation embedded in the indication is collectively on account of and simultaneously accrues to all club-members in the geographical region. However, despite this interdependence, club members compete with each other: “horizontally” for market shares (e.g. competition between distillers) and “vertically” for share of the rents (e.g. competition between distiller and a retailer). It is with this dimension to the collective action problem that the research will explore the following questions:

• What role do differentially endowed and interested actors play in the process of re-codifying the rules of the club?
• What are the problems faced in actualising the potential of GIs for localising economic control?

Project Funding: University of Warwick, UK (http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/csgr/research/projects/2007/protecting_feni)

Project Output: Ongoing project