Sri Lanka acquires Intellectual Property Protection rights for tea

Friday, 24 December 2010 00:15 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sri Lanka has registered a claim locally for intellectual property protection for Ceylon tea and the logo for ozone friendly pure Ceylon Tea under global ‘Geographical Indicators’ rules that would help market its main export product.

The ozone friendly certificate authenticates that Sri Lanka tea is grown without the use of any ozone depletion substances.

The Promotions Director of the Tea Board Hasitha De Alwis said that these local registrations are required before making overseas registrations. He said that the government also plans to locally register the island’s seven tea growing regions Nuwara Eliya, Dimbula, Uva, Udapusellawa, Kandy, Ruhuna and Sabaragamuwa, under GI indicators in January.

Getting the GI recognition under the World Trade Organisation Intellectual Property Rights Rules known as the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) could be used as a marketing tool, like French wines which were among the first products to be registered under the WTO regime.

Sri Lanka stopped using methyl bromide, an ozone depletion substance that had been used in pest management after adopting alternative environment friendly technologies for which it received the ‘Montréal Protocol Implementers Award’ in 2007, which allowed Sri Lanka to market Ceylon tea worldwide as an environmentally friendly and ozone friendly product. (News.lk)