The Basmati Patent
17 January 2009
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Basmati rice was developed by Indian farmers over hundreds of years, but in September 1997 a Texas-based company, RiceTec Inc., won a controversial US patent for a cross-breed with American long-grain rice. This company was granted a patent to call the aromatic rice grown outside India `Basmati’. RiceTec was granted the patent on the basis of aroma, elongation of the grain on cooking and chalkiness. Many have felt that the patent should not be granted since basmati is Indian property. India contested the patent for Basmati rice acquired by Rice Tec Inc, which had been challenged by the Agriculture and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA). The US Patent and Trademarks office accepted the petition and had re-examined its legitimacy.
Contrary to misinformation in some sections of the media, India did not lose the Basmati Patent Challenge. India has actually won and not lost the Basmati patent battle. In its original patent on ‘Basmati rice lines and grains’ – granted by the USPTO on September 2, 1997 – Rice Tec had made as many as 20 claims. Extensive documentation was submitted to establish that the various Basmati varieties cultivated over the centuries in the subcontinent contained all the ‘novel’ grain attributes mentioned in the patent. As a result of a worldwide citizen campaign against RiceTec Basmati patents, on Aug 14th 2001 the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office struck down large sections of the Basmati patent. In other words, the withdrawal of the grain-specific claims ensured that Rice Tec would not be able to block the country’s Basmati rice export to US; it could, however, produce ’similar or superior grains’ outside India.
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