Prince in rice patent battle
27 September 1999
Prince in rice patent battle
INDIA and Pakistan are united in a fight to get a Liechtenstein prince to give up his patent rights on a special type of basmati rice.
Prince Hans-Adam II controls the rights through a Texas company RiceTec, which has recently won a US patent for breeding a new strain of US-grown basmati rice.
The company has rejected calls for the revocation of its patent arguing that basmati is a generic term used globally.
It adds that its American-grown basmati rice, sold under names such as Texmati, Jasmati and Kasmati, is of a higher quality than some types of Asian basmati.
The UKs ministry of agriculture has found that RiceTecs Texmati rice does not conform to its genetic understanding of the characteristics of genuine basmati rice.
RiceTec withdrew an application to sell basmati rice under the Texmati brand name in the UK earlier this year.