Protecting Tribal Identity through GI: A Comparative Legal Analysis of India’s GI Act and the ARIPO Protocol

Abstract

Geographical Indications (GI) have become a critical interface between intellectual property law, cultural rights and indigenous economic development. The paper explores, through a comparative doctrinal and empirical study, India’s Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act 1999 and the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO) Protocol, while paying special attention to their ability to protect tribal identity. India is the home of a highly developed GI system that has been functional for a long time and has been supported with a special registry, continuous institutional cooperation, and community-based ownership structures, whereas ARIPO is a new form of a regional GI system that still has to solve issues of harmonisation, enforcement, and integration of customary law in the process. The study employs registry data (2010–2024), enforcement trends, and case studies to show that India’s cooperative-based GI ownership leads to a significant improvement in the enforcement outcomes and community benefit-sharing, while ARIPO’s fragmented implementation limits practical protection. Moreover, the analysis indicates that legal recognition alone does not guarantee cultural preservation unless it is accompanied by community governance, gender-inclusive participation and mechanisms integrating the customary norms. The paper proposes a reform roadmap based on biocultural protocols, blockchain traceability, decentralisation of monitoring, and cooperation between the South. The findings play an important role in the current debates on decolonising IP law and creating pluralistic GI systems that achieve Cultural Justice for indigenous communities in the Global South.