Basmati patent for U.S. firm

NEW DELHI, AUG. 20. The United States Patent Office has given a ``varietal patent'' to a Texan company for selling its three varieties of Basmati rice but this in no way prevented India from cultivating and selling its own varieties.``Giving a varietal patent to a company does not prevent any other body to cultivate Basmati rice because no trademark, brand and exclusive marketing rights have been provided,'' the World Agricultural Forum India coordinator, Mr. Madan Diwan, said.

Giving varietal patents was a common practice and it meant that three particular varieties of rice developed by Ricetec had been registered. Indians could also develop their own varieties because after a court battle in 1997-2000, the Patent Office had ruled in favour of the Indian Government's Basmati Development Fund.

- PTI

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