CALCUTTA, February 12: Domestic tea majors are fighting a bid by George Williamson Co Ltd of UK to patent the entire tea manufacturing process, right from the plucked leaf to 20kg packaged chests. George Williamson of the UK, which has a stake in BM Khaitan's Williamson Magor, runs one tea company in India, George Williamson Assam Ltd.In its patent application filed at the Indian Patents Office here, George Williamson has claimed that the process was invented by Alan L Carmichael and John M Trinick, and it is aimed at reducing and overcoming the problem of loss in quality of liquor of tea. George Williamson had filed the patent application in August 1990 and, after an unusually long delay, the patent office notified in January last year that objectors should give their stand within six months.
Innocuously titled "A method and apparatus for preparing processed tea leaves", George Williamson's application shows that it is claiming a patent for all the stages of tea making -- withering the tea leaf till itsmoisture content is reduced, rupturing the cells of the withered leaf mechanically to commence fermentation, drying the fermented withered leaf, grading and sorting, and vacuum packing. The patents office is expected to give its decision within a few months. Vinay Goenka's Warren Tea Ltd, Goodricke Good Ltd and other tea majors have opposed the move to patent the process, sources in the companies said. Warren and Goodricke were first off the mark. The others filed their objections jointly.
Prominent individuals of the tea industry, who refused to quoted, pointed out that the proposal is untenable since the tea manufacturing process which George Williamson has claimed as its invention is being practiced in the country for over three hundred years now.
George Williamson's proposal, a copy of which is available with The Financial Express, is says that "this invention relates to a method and an apparatus for preparing processed tea leaves and simultaneous vacuum packing of the processed tea".
Theabstract of the method says that: "To reduce or overcome the problem of loss of quality of the liquor of tea a method for processing and packing tea prior to transportation from the tea estate includes the steps of withering the picked green tea leaf over a period of time to reduce its moisture content and bring about a chemical change in the leaf, and feeding this withered leaf to processing machinery in order to rupture the cells within the leaf and commence the fermentation process".
It also says that the method also includes the steps of drying the fermented processed withered leaf down to a maximum of four per cent moisture, conveying at least one such grade of vacuum packing machinery and using the said machinery to vacuum pack it into bags each holding not less than 20 kilograms of tea." It has been priced at Rs 30 in 1990. A section of the tea industry doubted whether the claims made by George Williamson could be termed as an "invention". Section 2(1)(j) of the Patents Act, 1970, "invention meansany new and useful -- (i) art, process, method or manner of manufacture: (ii) machine, appratus or articles; (iii) substance produced by manufacture, and includes any view useful improvement of any of them, and an alleged invention." Yet one section opined that vacuum packaging might have been invented in the United Kingdom by George Williamson as claimed, the issue can never be extended to the Indian scenario since there will be opposition from players in the retail and bulk segment.
R K Jhawar, a director of the Williamson Magor group, said that he is unable to comment since the proposal was filed by the London office of George Williamson and since he is not aware of the latest status of the issue. However, he is hopeful that a decision will emerge shortly. The claims outlined in the George Williamson's invention says that: "The method according to claim 1 wherein tea is packed in bags of multiple layer laminate". The multiple layer laminate has an inner layer of a synthetic plastics material having goodvapour and gas barrier properties, an intervening layer of thin aluminium foil, and at least one further layer of plastic material. The combination of the inner bag, according to the proposal, and the laminate may be located within a cardboard, wooden or kraft paper box or other suitable outer casting. This casing provides mechanical protection during handling and transit.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
