"Uttarakhand Badri Cow Ghee" is a registered Geographical Indication: the GI Registry's record for application 1390 shows the status Registered, Uttarakhand Cooperative Dairy Federation Limited of Haldwani as applicant, and a certificate of registration dated 5 November 2025. The tag protects the name and its link to Uttarakhand and a registered description of the product; it is not a lab test of any jar. Here is what the record says, what the Act gives, and how to look it up yourself.
At a glance
- The GI Registry record for application 1390 shows "Uttarakhand Badri Cow Ghee", class 29, filed 12 December 2024, status Registered, advertised in GI Journal 203 with an availability date of 4 July 2025.
- The certificate of registration on that record is dated 5 November 2025 and names Uttarakhand Cooperative Dairy Federation Limited as registered proprietor, with the entry made in Part A of the register.
- Section 21 of the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 gives the exclusive right to use a registered GI to its authorised users; the record for 1390 lists two.
- Section 18 of the Act makes a GI registration run for ten years, renewable for ten years at a time.
- The GI does not replace the food standard: FSSAI's ghee standard still requires at least 99.5 per cent milk fat, which a batch test checks, not the register.
What is a GI tag?
A GI tag is a registration under the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999. Section 2(1)(e) defines a geographical indication as an indication which identifies goods "as originating, or manufactured in the territory of a country, or a region or locality in that territory, where a given quality, reputation or other characteristic of such goods is essentially attributable to its geographical origin". The protected thing is the link between a name and a place.
The Registry's own explanation, printed at the back of GI Journal 203, puts it in four lines: it is an indication; it identifies agricultural, natural or manufactured goods originating in the said area; it originates from a definite territory in India; and it "should have a special quality or characteristics unique to the geographical indication". The Act is administered by the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, who is the Registrar of Geographical Indications, and the Registry sits in Chennai. Section 7 divides the register in two: registered GIs in Part A, registered authorised users in Part B.
The same text separates a GI from a trade mark, which distinguishes one enterprise's goods from another's: a GI "is used to identify goods having special characteristics originating from a definite geographical territory".
Is Badri cow ghee GI tagged?
Yes. We opened the GI Registry's public record for application 1390 on 8 October 2026 and downloaded the documents attached to it. The table gives each field as it appears there and the document it comes from.
| Field | Value | Where it is recorded |
|---|---|---|
| Application number | 1390 | GI Registry record; certificate |
| Geographical indication | Uttarakhand Badri Cow Ghee | GI Registry record; certificate |
| Status | Registered | GI Registry record |
| Applicant and registered proprietor | Uttarakhand Cooperative Dairy Federation Limited, Mangal Paro, Haldwani, Nainital 263 139 | GI Registry record; certificate ("is the Registered Proprietor") |
| Facilitated by | Dairy Development Department, Government of Uttarakhand | Certificate; GI Journal 203 |
| Date of filing | 12 December 2024 | GI Registry record; GI Journal 203 |
| Class and goods | Class 29, "Cow Ghee" (record: "Food Stuffs") | GI Journal 203; certificate; GI Registry record |
| Advertised | GI Journal 203 of 4 July 2025, as accepted under section 13(1) | GI Journal 203, page 67 |
| Certificate of registration | Dated 5 November 2025, Chennai; "entry made in Part-A of the register" | Certificate on the record |
| Authorised users | Two: M/s Hetha Organics LLP (AU/61961/GI/1390/1) and M/s Uttarakhand Cooperative Dairy Federation Limited (AU/65951/GI/1390/2) | GI Registry record, "Authorized User Details" |
| Certificate number; registration valid up to | Blank on the record when we opened it | GI Registry record |
The certificate number and "Registration Valid Upto" fields were empty when we opened the record, so we do not state them. Section 18 runs the registration for ten years and allows renewal.
What does the GI protect?
It protects the name "Uttarakhand Badri Cow Ghee" as a sign of origin, and it fixes a public description of the goods. Section 21 gives the registered proprietor and the authorised users "the right to obtain relief in respect of infringement", and gives the authorised user "the exclusive right to the use of the geographical indication in relation to the goods in respect of which the geographical indication is registered". Under section 22, a registered GI is infringed by a person who, not being an authorised user, uses it in a way that "indicates or suggests that such goods originate in a geographical area other than the true place of origin" and misleads people, or in a manner that amounts to unfair competition, including passing off.
The description advertised in GI Journal 203 is what the name now stands for. In summary: the ghee is made from the milk of the Badri cow, "a hardy, indigenous breed native to the high-altitude areas (1,500–3,000 meters) of Uttarakhand"; the cows graze freely on Himalayan pastures; the ghee is "traditionally prepared using the Vedic Bilona method"; and, in the method section, boiled milk is set with a spoonful of curd for about 16 hours in earthen pots, churned with a wooden churner, and the butter heated to 110–115 °C and clarified at 70–75 °C. The geographical-area section describes the state of Uttarakhand, and an inspection body is named, drawn from the Federation, the Dairy Development Department, the district administration, traders and producers. What the breed is, and what it changes in the ghee, are in our articles on the Badri cow breed and Badri cow ghee.
What does the GI tag not do?
It does not test any jar. Three things people read into a GI tag are not in the Act or on the record.
It is not a per-batch laboratory test. Registration is an entry in a register, made once and renewable every ten years. The journal entry describes an inspection body and says packs carry a QR code for traceability, but the Act's rights are about the use of the name. What a given batch contains is a laboratory question, answered by that batch's report; how to read one is in ghee lab report parameters.
It is not a purity certificate. The legal standard for ghee is separate. FSSAI's standard for milk fat products requires ghee to contain at least 99.5 per cent milk fat, with raw material "free from added flavour, colour or preservative". A GI registration neither adds to that standard nor shows a product meets it. The applicant's own "chemical specifications" in the journal give a fat content "typically, between 82–85%" and moisture "less than 1%"; those are the applicant's figures as printed in the journal, and they sit below the FSSAI minimum for ghee, so read the batch report, not the specification, for what is in the jar.
It is not an organic or A2 certification. The journal entry says the cows eat "organic feed" and that the milk is "rich in A2 beta-casein (90%)". Those are the applicant's descriptions of the product's character, which is what section 2(1)(e) asks for; they are not a certification scheme, and the Act creates none. Whether a herd's milk is A2 is a question of genotyping the cows, as our article on whether a lab can prove ghee is A2 explains.
Nor is a GI a brand. As the Registry's FAQ page says, it "shall not be the subject matter of assignment, transmission, licensing, pledge, mortgage or such other agreement".
Who may use the name "Uttarakhand Badri Cow Ghee"?
Under section 21(1)(b), the exclusive right to use a registered GI on the goods belongs to its authorised users. Section 17 says "any person claiming to be the producer of the goods" may apply in writing to the Registrar to be registered as one, with documents to show that they are a producer, and the same examination, advertisement and opposition steps apply as for the GI itself. Section 18(2) runs an authorised user's registration for ten years, or until the GI registration expires, whichever is earlier.
The registered proprietor is the body entered in Part A; here that is the Federation. Authorised users are entered in Part B, and the public record for 1390 lists two, with authorised user numbers. The general information at the back of GI Journal 203 answers the question directly: "Only an authorized user has the exclusive rights to use the Geographical indication in relation to goods in respect of which it is registered."
What the record does not settle is a label reading "Badri cow ghee" or "Badri ghee", without the word Uttarakhand, from a producer who is not on the register. Section 22 turns on whether a use misleads as to origin or amounts to unfair competition, which is a question for a court on the facts. We do not offer a view on it. A buyer can check who is registered, and ask any seller using the registered name for their authorised user number.
How can a buyer check the register?
The register is public, and the 1390 record carries every document behind this article. It takes a few minutes.
- Open the GI public search at search.ipindia.gov.in/GIRPublicSearch. It lists every application by number and name; find 1390 or "Uttarakhand Badri Cow Ghee" and click View.
- On the record, read the status, applicant, filing date, class and journal number, then scroll to "Document Details". The certificate of registration, the journal copy, the examination report and the applicant's annexures each open as a PDF.
- Scroll to "Authorized User Details". Each authorised user is listed with a number of the form AU/…/GI/1390/… and an address, so a seller's claim can be matched against the list.
- For the advertised description, open GI Journal 203 from the Registry's GI journal list; the Badri cow ghee entry begins on page 67 and the general information on GIs is at the back.
- For the law, read sections 2, 7, 17, 18, 21 and 22 of the Act as published in the Gazette on the IP India site.
The register changes: authorised users can be added under section 17 and entries removed by the Registrar, so the current record is the only reliable version.
The short version
"Uttarakhand Badri Cow Ghee" is a registered GI: application 1390, class 29, filed 12 December 2024 by Uttarakhand Cooperative Dairy Federation Limited, advertised in GI Journal 203 of 4 July 2025, certificate dated 5 November 2025. Under the 1999 Act the registration protects the name and its link to Uttarakhand and the advertised description, and gives the exclusive right to use it to the authorised users on the register, two of whom are listed. It runs for ten years and can be renewed. It is not a batch test, not a purity certificate under FSSAI's 99.5 per cent milk fat rule, and not an organic or A2 certification. Check the record; read the batch report for what is in the jar.
Sources
Further reading behind the figures above. Himdhara's own numbers — yields, batch results — come from our production records and the batch reports on the lab reports page.
- Geographical Indications Registry, Intellectual Property India (2025). Details | Geographical Indications | Intellectual Property India (application 1390, with certificate and journal copy attached). search.ipindia.gov.in.
- Government of India (1999). The Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 (No. 48 of 1999). The Gazette of India, Extraordinary, 30 December 1999; hosted by Intellectual Property India.
- Geographical Indications Registry, Intellectual Property India (2025). Geographical Indications Journal No. 203, July 04, 2025 (application 1390 at pages 67–81). search.ipindia.gov.in.
- Intellectual Property India. FAQ (Geographical Indications). ipindia.gov.in.
- Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011: Chapter 2.1, Dairy products and analogues (2.1.8 Standard for Milk Fat Products). FSSAI.