Squabbles between Pakistan and India over trade-related issues are multiplying. The latest to erupt is over intellectual property protection for the prized pashmina wool and the products made from it, by getting a geographical indication tag. In dispute is the application filed by a Jammu and Kashmir-based handicrafts association to register "Kashmiri Pashmina" as the exclusive brand for products made in this Indian state. This will lend "Kashmiri Pashmina" the same kind of brand protection enjoyed by, say, champagne and Darjeeling tea. And the challenger, predictably, is a pashmina-trading organisation in Pakistan which wants products produced in the part of Kashmir under that country's occupation to be given the same IPR protection.

Prima facie, Pakistan would appear within its rights to put forth such a plea, as pashmina is produced from the under-growth of the hair of a special changthangi or pashmina breed of goat that has been indigenous to the high altitudes of the Himalayas, including the Pakistan-occupied region. But if that logic is applied, Nepal too should be made a party to this patent protection as its upper mountainous reaches have also been home to pashmina goats for thousands of years and pashmina-based products have been woven there for a long period. Even in India, for that matter, pashmina goats have not been confined to the Kashmir region, and have inhabited the higher hills of Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal as well. The real difference lies in the quality, as also exclusivity, of the pashmina fleece and its products produced in different regions though, admittedly, all kinds of genuine pashmina wool possess the envious trait of being incomparably soft. India's case might be that additional scientific effort has gone into refining the quality of pashmina and improving the fleece yield of these goats.