NGOs launch campaign against basmati patents

by Chakravarthi Raghavan

Genera, 21 Nov 2000 -- A global coalition of non-government organizations have launched a sign-on letter and campaign against bio-piracy and the patents on basmati rice granted to the US corporation RiceTec Inc.

The Indian government recently challenged the patents in the United States and as a result RiceTec has withdrawn four of its 20 claims and patents, leaving intact its exclusive rights to grow basmati in the Americas and the Caribbean.

The RiceTec’s patented basmati has been derived from Indian basmati crossed with long-grain and semi-dwarf varieties. The NGO coalition says the patent is for a type essentially derived from a farmers variety, and was simply a case of cross-breeding and should not be treated as a novel invention. The patent claim falsely claims a derivation as an invention.

European NGO groups said that RiceTec was ‘exporting’ and selling in Europe its ‘basmati’, thus confusing consumers and the public. In the UK, as a result of NGO campaigns, the voluntary code of conduct was being applied to ensure distinction between the ‘basmati’ from India and the RiceTec product. Campaigns were being initiated under consumer protection laws in other EC countries, they said.

ActionAid said its investigations showed that in some 62 patents, there is evidence of biopiracy, and patent protection has been claimed in these cases for naturally occurring compounds, genes or gene sequences with a variety of functions.

The patent applications, the report said, indicate that genetic engineering might intensify the problems of substitution.

The NGOs are encouraging India, which successfully challenged some of the RiceTec patents, to go ahead and challenge the remaining patent claims of RiceTec.

The global coalition of about 90 organizations from 20 countries demanded that the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) revoke all of RiceTec’s remaining patent claims on basmati rice. The coalition includes the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Biology in India, ActionAid, the US Coalition against RiceTec patents, the Institute of Agricultural and Trade Policy, the WWF International and the Berne Declaration.

The campaign comes on the eve of next week’s meeting of the TRIPS Council where among other items on the agenda the issues of review of Art. 27.3 (b) of the TRIPS agreement relating to exclusion from patentability of plants and animals (but not micro-organisms), but requiring a sui generis system of protecting plant breeders rights.

A large global coalition of NGOs have backed the proposal of the African group of countries that all life forms should be excluded from patenting.

At a press conference by the NGOs, Vandana Shiva said the basmati patent issue was a test case for US-style IPR regimes and the TRIPs review. If all the claims of RiceTec are not withdrawn, and the TRIPs review does not result in prohibiting such patents, the US Patent Office and the WTO would have established themselves as “protectors of bio-piracy, not of innovation and creativity.

However, filing cases and challenging individual patents is a costly affair, and what is needed is change in the TRIPs agreement that enables countries to grant such patents, Shiva and Ruth Tripathi of ActionAid said.

It is very expensive to challenge patents on a case-by-case basis, the NGOs noted, pointing out that American lawyers demanded a deposit of nearly $500,000 from Pakistan - another country whose farmers grow basmati - to challenge the patents.

In a preliminary report based on its investigations, ActionAid said as a result of an extensive database survey, it had discovered biopiracy patents involving cassava, cocoa, jojoba, millet, nutmeg, rice, rubber, sorghum and sweet potato - all crops grown mainly in developing countries and important to the economies of these countries, and the food security of farmers.

The patents and the claims to ‘seed patenting’—as in the case of RiceTec—affects the livelihood of millions of small farmers in the developing world.

Aftab Alam, the foodrights coordinator of ActionAid Pakistan, and Ghulam Madina, a woman farmer from Bahawalnagar in Pakistan, said in Pakistan, many small farmers grew basmati in the particular region, and sold the crop on the market and with the sale value bought twice that volume of ordinary rice to feed their families.

Said Ghulam Madina: “I know how important basmati is as a vital source of income for many small farmers. If this patent is not defeated, it would be a serious threat to our living standards.”

Alam said that developing countries like India need support to face increasing WTO pressures to let business gain patents on staple food crops, “and this is nothing short of bio-piracy.”

“We urge India to stand firm and all those who care for the poor to demand that the USPTO revoke the rest of RiceTec’s patent.” Alam said.