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Time ripe for the Battle of Basmati, says expert

India should now fight to regain the rights for basmati, says noted patent expert Suman Sahai.

India, she said, should move the dispute settlement court of the World Trade Organisation against the United States government's decision to grant a patent for basmati rice to an American company.

The United States, by granting patenting rights on the flavoured long-grained basmati rice grown traditionally in India and Pakistan, violated the geographical indication clause of the Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights. This was the very document, in accordance with which it wants India to amend its patent law concerning pharmaceutical and agro-chemical products, she said.

"If they (the US) can take India to the dispute settlement court, India, being on firmer ground, can very well take the US to the same forum," Sahai said.

Following the United States's decision to grant patent, the company 'Rice Tec' will be able to sell its long-grain rice as basmati in and outside the US. This move could deliver a crippling blow to Indian basmati rice exporters.

Sahai said it was mystifying why India had taken such an "incorrect, negative and self defeating" stance that it did not have a law defining "geographical indicated right".

TRIPS had recognised this aspect and said it was the sole and exclusive right of India and Pakistan, which had a share in growing and selling basmati rice. Protests by the government alone would not help and the issue would have to be fought in the WTO court jointly by the two countries as the decision will hurt both economically, she said.

She said it was high time India told the United States in no uncertain terms that there should be total compliance to TRIPS by either both countries or none. Sahai, who has led several campaigns against the 'designs' of transnational companies to grab the resources of developing countries by patenting genetic material, said India should tell the US that it could not expect India to comply with the TRIPS provisions it conveniently violated provisions of the same document.

She said that in marked contrast the United Kingdom Rice Importers Association, the biggest trader of basmati rice world over had not permitted the sale of any rice under the name basmati except the long-grained flavoured rice from India and Pakistan, despite attempts from exporters from countries like Thailand. Saudi Arabia and other west Asian countries had imposed similar restrictions, she said.

She said transnational companies were bound to continue their ''shameless'' attitude on other products too. In the first-ever case concerning patenting, that of haldi or turmeric, India had successfully fought against a US patent granted, pointing out that Indians have known the healing properties of haldi.

It was, she added, a symbolic victory because haldi has little economic importance, while basmati rice patenting would have grave implications on trade.

Sahai said India should learn a lesson or two from the example provided by France and Scotland, which had spared no efforts to preserve the rights of their trademark champagne and scotch. France did not even allow brewers in districts neighbouring Champagne, which had a similar climate, to sell wine as champagne. She cited the example of an effort in Italy to produce similar wine under the same name. The Italians lost the case in court and had to shell out huge amounts of money as penalty.

Sahai, who assisted the parliamentary panel with its draft Biological Resources Act, said the theft of bio-resources is bound to recur. According to her, the best way to fight it was to build up international pressure to ensure compliance in both the WTO and the Bio-diversity Convention, which recognised the rights of developing countries on bio-diversity.

She said the United States had conveniently not ratified the Bio-diversity Convention and that India should lobby for it because nobody could use raw materials from India and other developing countries without paying for it.

EARLIER REPORT:
The battle of haldi is over...

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