Whether the granting of a varietal patent on basmati rice to an American firm by the us Patent Office is a "victory' as the government maintains, or a defeat as most ngo s maintain, is not the issue. The issue is to chart out a clear and time bound strategy to protect our traditional knowledge. As yet, our actions have been at best ad hoc and piecemeal.
Take the basmati case. It is clear at best our victory is technical. The Indian government challenged and won three claims that were broad
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Links:
[1] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/opinion/patented-act
[2] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/category/newspaper/down-earth
[3] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/category/thesaurus/basmati-rice
[4] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/category/thesaurus/traditional-knowledge
[5] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/category/thesaurus/patents
[6] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/category/thesaurus/ngo
[7] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/category/thesaurus/united-states-america-us
[8] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/category/thesaurus/india
