Question

In 1997, an American company got patent rights on basmati rice through the U.S patent and trademark office. A variety of basmati had actually been derived from Indian farmer's varieties. If so, what is Biopiracy?

Answer 1

Hint: Basmati is the slender long variety of aromatic rice, which is traditionally from the Indian subcontinent, India used to export 65% of the overseas basmati rice, however, it is exclusive in so many districts of India and Pakistan.

Complete answer:
> In 1997 the US company by the name Rice tac had granted the patent rights to the basmati rice, through US patent rights and trademark.
> This is the classic example of Biopiracy.
> Biopiracy is the illegal use of the products which is obtained from other countries or areas without any compensating in the terms of any money or not filling any forms regarding it.
> This Biopiracy of basmati rice is purely done for a selfish purpose.
> It can also be done with the research obtained from the Universities or from the countries which are occurring in the world.
> Rice tac company obtains all the patent rights over the name of the basmati grains, but it doesn’t acknowledge the origin or originality.
> This impact of the patent right on basmati jeopardizes prospects of Indian basmati rice suppliers who are exporting to the USA and to the other western countries.
> Later Indian government requested the Rice tac company to check about the patents as it affects the
> Indian origin rice and took this issue to the world trade organization.
After all these allegations, finally, the U.S. patent office ordered to change the patent for basmati rice.

Note:
In the year 2002, after all, issues were over, Rice tac company continued to market the Texmati rice which is long and slender rice, and they called Textmati has long grain American basmati, now all the patents of this company are under the name of Texmati.