WHO had the patent for basmati rice??????

[the_future_modernes]

Biopiracy: Let's BAG It!

2000

Working with nature, farmers in the South Asian countries of Pakistan, India and Nepal have cultivated basmati rice for countless centuries. Rice is an integral part of many of the region's diverse cultures. In some of the ancient texts, rice has been associated with prana, or breath. Basmati literally means "fragrant earth" and is considered one of the most aromatic and flavorful rice varieties in the subcontinent. It is also one of the more lucrative export rice crops from South Asia. The Basmati rice exports of Indian farmers alone are worth over $270 million (US). Quite a sizeable amount for any transnational corporation to get their hands on.

In 1997, the powerful United States Patent Office gave Rice Tec, Inc., the patent on Basmati rice. Rice Tec, Inc. is an US-based corporation in Alvin, Texas and a subsidiary of the larger Rice Tec Group whose CEO is Hans-Adam 11, the prince of Leichtenstein. By cross-breeding two Basmati rice varieties the owners of Rice Tec insist that they have invented a "novel" variety of this age-old rice from South Asia. Their patent covers any Basmati variety crowd with a semidwarf strain grown anywhere in the Western Hemisphere. More ominously, the patent also covers any basmati rice that resembles the original plants they used in their cross-breeding methods. This could potentially extend their patent to South Asia.

What the Rice Tec patent covers are the breeding methods as well as the germplasm of the basmati rice variety Rice Tec claims to have "invented." Now, while the patenting of the breeding method is itself a theft of farmers' knowledge and a privatization of the common, age old practice of cross-breeding, the patenting of germplasms of plants amounts to nothing less than the colonization of life.MORE

TED Case Studies: BASMATI

The Government of India's response to the Patent

In an official release, the government of India reacted immediately after learning of the Basmati patent issued to RiceTec Inc., stating that it would approach the US patent office and urge them to re-examine the patent to a United States firm to grow and sell rice under the Basmati brand name in order to protect India's interests, particularly those of growers and exporters. Furthermore, a high level inter-ministerial group comprising of representatives of the ministries and departments of commerce, industry, external affairs, Council for scientific and industrial research (CSIR), Agriculture, Bio-technology, All India Rice Exporters Association (AIREA), APEDA, and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) were mobilized to begin an in-depth examination of the case. The contents and implications of the patent are currently being analyzed in consultation with patent attorneys and agricultural scientists. The government of India is particularly concerned about the patenting of Basmati because of an earlier case where the US granted a patent to two Indian-born scientists on the use of Turmeric as a wound healing agent. This case worked in favor of India because the patent was subsequently revoked after scientists of (CSIR) successfully challenged the patenting on the ground that the healing properties of Turmeric had been 'common knowledge' in India for centuries. There is a clause in US patent laws that will accept any information already available in published or written form anywhere in the world as 'common knowledge'. As a result, India was able to furnish published evidence to support their case that the healing characteristics of Turmeric is not a new invention and as such cannot be patented. MORE

India-U.S. Fight on Basmati Rice Is Mostly Settled

A Texas company's attempt to patent a type of basmati rice became a touchstone for anti-globalization protest in the 1990's. But the long-simmering issue was largely settled this week, when the United States granted a narrower patent to the company, Ricetec of Alvin, Tex.

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In 1997, the United States initially granted a broad basmati patent to Ricetec, which developed several strains of rice marketed under various names as similar to basmati. Of the 20 claims made by the company, most related to the rice plant, with others covering the grain and farming methods.

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The American patent office just issued a patent on the claims dealing with three strains of the rice developed by the company.MORE

On my booklist: Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge by Vandana Shiva I'd prefer to buy it from South End Press but thier website is not working right now? At least , my computer doesn't want to access it. Got the south end press link!

Comments

[willow]

I would laugh, but y'know....

Patents on Cancer Cells ; that come from old black folks whose families see no compensation.

Patents on corn, soy, cotton.

Pshh...I have an ebook I have to read that talks about the Gutting Of The Commons (or similar title) and even then, switching from what is common to what is not; I'm just - SERIOUSLY? Cause the US has a patent office, step 2 - ?, step 3 = profit!!!

Seriously world?

And then people call me hostile when I tell them 'Your ignorance, get thee to the internet and repair it.'