Can we patent Tradition?
Last year, India won a 10-year-long battle at the European Patent Office against a patent granted on an anti-fungal product, derived from neem, by successfully arguing that the medicinal neem tree is part of traditional Indian knowledge.
In 1998 the US Patent Office granted patent to a local company for new strains of rice similar to basmati, which has been grown for centuries in the Himalayan foothills of north-west India and Pakistan and has become popular internationally. After a prolonged legal battle, the patent was revoked four years ago.
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<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/07/opinion/07mehta.html?ei=5090&en=086cf83134beb7e5&ex=1336190400&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Opinion | A Big Stretch - The New York Times</a>
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