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Presented By

Aleem Muneer Sheriff


 In September 1997, an American company Rice Tec Inc, a small food
technology company based in Taxes, was granted a patent by the US patent
office to call the aromatic rice variety developed in USA 'Basmati'.
 India challenged arguing that Basmati is unique aromatic rice grown in
northern India and not a name Rice Tec could claim and only inventions can
be patented.
 Consequently US patent office accepted India’s basic position and the
company had to drop 15 out of 20 claims that it had made.
 And for remaining claims, Rice Tec managed to evolve three new varieties
of rice for which it got patent from United States Patent and Trademark
office (USPTO).
 According to WTO agreement, geographic indication like Basmati can be
protected legally and their misuse can be prevented. And Indian government
was late in taking such actions.
Question: 1: can any of the following Viz.,
turmeric, neem and the name Basmati be
patented?

 Inventions can only be patented if they satisfy three criteria:

 Novelty: only inventions that are genuinely new, and not part of existing
knowledge, can be patented.
 Non-obviousness: if the new invention is obvious, i.e. anyone familiar with
the subject could easily anticipate the invention, then it cannot be patented.
 Utility: the invention has to work in practice.

 Turmeric cannot be patented because turmeric is being used in India for


thousands of the years and therefore unless and until its new use is not being
invented, it can not be patented as it would not be called invention for which
generally patents are given.
 Unless and until new usage of Neem is not found out, neem can not be patented
because it has been used by Indian people for various uses since many years and
hence unless new use is not found patenting is not possible because patents are
given for some new inventions.
 Basmati Name cannot be patented because it is a name given to long rice having
good fragrance grown in northern part of India and Pakistan for thousands of
years and according WTO’s agreement regarding geographic indication which can
be protected against misuse hence Basmati Name is not patentable.
Question: 2: Evaluate the role played by
Government of India in preventing the misuse of the
name Basmati.
• In an official release, the government of India reacted immediately after learning of the
Basmati patent issued to Rice Tec 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.
• 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 Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (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
• For years, India largely ignored any claim or legal protection for
growers and marketers of basmati. A bill has been introduced to recognize
produce as belonging to a specific geographical area, but it is still
pending before a panel of the Parliament.
• Given that basmati is not patented by geographic location even within
India, the country's international patent appeal appears weak.
• For over two decades ''basmati'' has been used in the United States to
describe long grain aromatic rice grown domestically. This usage went
unchallenged by India, so much so that the patent claims were under the
plea of ''long usage'' provided for in trade-related intellectual property
rights.
• In hundreds of pages of scientific evidence, India argued that its
basmati varieties already had the characteristics claimed as unique by Rice
Tec.
• Finally India won the case and Rice Tec has to withdraw his 15 claims out
of 20, most importantly, the right to call their rice lines "basmati"

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