it was a long bitter fight. But for India, it ended on a promising note. Consistent campaigning by non-governmental organi-sations ( ngo s) in both India and abroad forced the revocation of a patent granted jointly to the us Department of Agriculture ( usda ) and the us chemical major wr Grace on a fungicide formation from the seeds of neem. The fight was triggered off by a petition filed by three others before the European Patent Office ( epo ) five years ago. It culminated on May 11 when a four-member team of the epo revoked the patent.

The us /Grace patent no. 0436257, granted in 1994, concerns a "hydrophobic extracted neem oil