Basmati-A Bio-Piracy Case

Basmati Rice is a well-known variety of long grain aromatic rice and is available in two varieties-white and brown. It’s mainly cultivated in India and Pakistan for thousands of years and is famous for its special fragrance and flavor. The word ‘Bas’ means ‘Aroma’ and ‘Mati’ means ‘full of’ in Hindi Language, i.e. ‘full of aroma’. India and Pakistan are the only exporters of this rice as it is mainly grown in the Punjab region by the paddy farmers in the foothills of Himalaya.

But the problem started in September, 1997 when “RiceTec Inc.,” a Texas company owned by Prince Hans-Adam of Liechtenstein was granted a patent (U.S. Patent No.5,663,484) by the US patent office to call the aromatic rice grown outside India 'Basmati'. The mentioned company had been trying to penetrate the international Basmati market with brands like 'Kasmati' and 'Texmati' but met minimal success. But due to the patent rights granted by the USPTO, RiceTec will now be able to not only call its aromatic rice Basmati within the US, but also label it Basmati for its export of the rice variety.

The Basmati patent gave rise to great repercussions for India and Pakistan because the patent would not only result in India losing its US import market but also its position in important  markets like Asia, European Union and the United Kingdom. Moreover, the Basmati patent was also considered as a violation of the Geographical Indications Act under the TRIPs agreement as the long grain aromatic rice grown only in Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh is called Basmati from the ancient Indian history. A geographical indication is a name or sign used on certain products which corresponds to a specific geographical location or origin (e.g. a town, region, or country) and the quality and characteristic link to the product and its place of origin. India and Pakistan joined together to defend RiceTec patent over a variety of basmati rice before the USPTO. APEDA (Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority), CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research), ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) helped the Indian Govt. to take initiative against the USPTO granted patent over basmati rice.

The Basmati Patent resulted in a brief diplomatic crisis between India and United States with India threatening to take the matter to WTO as a violation of TRIPs, because a GI product can not be patented under the provision of TRIPs. However, ultimately, due to review decisions by the United States Patent Office, RiceTec has lost most of their claims of the patent, including, most importantly, the right to call their rice "basmati."

This was a huge victory for Indian and Pakistan farmers who could have faced enormous economic losses due to grant of patent over Basmati rice.