Date:19/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/19/stories/2008091950140100.htm

New Delhi

Cabinet nod for ordinance to amend 1985 Act

Gargi Parsai

It is to counter Pakistan move to patent Basmati rice

NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet on Thursday gave its approval for promulgation of an ordinance to amend the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) Act, 1985, empowering the Authority to register and protect intellectual property rights or similar rights including “Geographical Indications” for certain special agriculture products such as “Basmati rice” in India and elsewhere. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh chaired the meeting.

The decision is meant to counter a move in Pakistan to register the trademark “Basmati rice” to the Basmati Growers’ Association in Lahore. The Registrar of Trade Marks in Karachi is reported to have rejected the contention of APEDA and others while allowing the registration of trademark “Basmati” in Pakistan. The APEDA Act, 1985, was enacted for development and promotion of exports of scheduled farm and processed food products.

Speaking to The Hindu, Union Commerce Secretary G.K. Pillai said there was no Geographical Indications (GI) Act in Pakistan, so Basmati could not be patented there as GI. There had only been registration of trademark, against which India had filed an appeal. “There is a Joint Working Group of representatives from both the countries which is working at joint patenting of Basmati rice as GI [to avoid conflict of interest in defending Basmati GI in third countries].” The JWG had last met in April.

India already has in place the Geographical Indication of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999, defining the aspect of industrial property/products that originate from a definite geographical territory as being the country or place of origin of that product. Typically such a name conveys an assurance of quality and distinctiveness that is essentially attributable to the fact of its origin in that defined geographical locality, region or country. Registration of GI extends legal protection to that product. The Indian Basmati rice is renowned for its long grain, typical taste and aroma that is specific to India-Gangetic plains in North India including parts of adjacent Pakistan. There have been several attempts to register the Basmati rice trade mark or gain intellectual property rights in the past, the most (in)famous being the attempt to patent a newly developed rice, Texmati, by a US-based rice company, Rice Tec. India successfully fought off that attempt.