India still grapples with 40 basmati patent litigations in 25 countries

New Delhi, Aug 24: THE basmati issue is yet to be resolved as India is grappling with 40 litigations on the issue in 25 countries ranging from trademark rights to unique aroma, Agricultural and Processed Foods Export Development Authority (APEDA) chairman Anil Swarup said on Friday.

“India has won 15 cases on basmati patent related issues, but there are 40 cases which have to be resolved and to strengthen our case registration under Geographical Indicator (GI) Act is needed,” Mr Swarup said.

He said cases involved countries as far as Chile, Greece, Brazil and Jordan and were being fought by APEDA’s Basmati Development Fund (BDF).

To finance these litigations a cess of Rs 50 was being imposed on every tonne exported through the All India Rice Exporters Association.

Mr Swarup said all cases did not relate to bio-piracy which involved using strains of Indian basmati, but also included registration of trade marks like Texmati and Kasmati.

Such efforts of the company Rice Tec had been defeated in Greece and Spain by getting the claims rejected on the grounds that they were deceptively similar to Basmati.

Similarly in Spain, APEDA had been able to get Basmati registered as aromatic rice grown in the subcontinent while in Brazil it had a trademark proposal to make sweets rejected.

Mr Swarup said to curb such tendencies of companies to infringe on Indian rights over basmati, efforts were on to get it registered under the GI Act.

The DNA string of eleven traditional varieties had been codified in accordance with its unique properties which ultimately gave basmati the aroma, colour and length it was well known for.

The idea was to establish basmati as a product unique to specific confines of the sub-continent based on the agro-climatic conditions here so that no other country was able to use the name for its rice, he added.

He said, “Since both India and Pakistan grow basmati they have to take a common view on the issue to prevent the use of the name by developers and cultivators in other countries.” He said India had already passed the GI Act as required by the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (Trips) agreement to enable the exclusive use of the word basmati.

The regulations under the Act were being currently framed by the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIP&P) in the commerce and industry ministry.

Once the rules are in place, India would register basmati as a product unique in its own region and set in motion the process of getting it registered in other countries too, Mr Swarup added.
He, however, hastened to add that this could not be done in countries like the US which did not have a GI Act at all.

(PTI).