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Our Bureau

Chennai, Dec. 29 The Agricultural and Processed Food Products’ Export Development Authority (Apeda) has moved the Sindh High Court in Pakistan against the trademark right given by the Registrar of Trademark, Karachi, to Basmati Growers’ Association, Lahore, for basmati rice. The registrar, in fact, has allowed only the growers to use the trademark. The case is slated to come up for hearing in January.

“We have filed a petition in the Sindh High Court against a collective trademark issued for basmati by the Registrar of Trademark,” said an Apeda official.

Apeda has filed the case as it has been entrusted with the promotion of basmati export. The Centre also plans to vest the authority with statutory powers to apply, register, own and protect trademark and Geographican Indicator (GI) for basmati rice. A Bill to arm Apeda with these powers was moved in Parliament last week.

News reports from Pakistan said besides Apeda, the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan has also appealed in the High Court against the registrar’s decision permitting only the growers to use the trademark.

On its part, the Basmati Growers Association, a farmers’ body, has moved the high court expressing reservations over the registrar’s ruling. “Some points of the decision were against us, so we are also in the high court,” the association president, Mr Hamid Malhi, was quoted by The News daily.

While Apeda has moved the Pakistani court hoping for justice, it is also ready to go through any other means for protecting the rights of Indian basmati growers.

India has been in discussion with Pakistan for a joint registration of GI for basmati as this would serve the interests of the two countries and preclude any conflict of interest in defending basmati GI in third countries. The Union Minister of State for Commerce and Power, Mr Jairam Ramesh, told Business Line last week that two rounds of meeting had been held with Pakistan, the latest one in Islamabad during November 7-8.

At that meeting, it was resolved that both the countries should co-operate in defending third party infringements. Mr Ramesh said the discussions would continue and suggested that both India and Pakistan should declare 2009 as “Year of Basmati” to sensitise their joint bid for protecting the aromatic grain’s GI status.

Mr Malhi of the Basmati Growers Association, referring to the Indo-Pakistan talks said: “There is difference between India and Pakistan on the definition of basmati rice. They don’t have contiguous area of basmati and they don’t produce much of it.”

Aware of the implications of a fight within its borders, Pakistan’s Commerce Ministry has asked all the stakeholders to resolve the trademark registration issue, more importantly between the rice exporters and growers’ body.

The News quoted Mr Zahid Khwaja, a senior member of the export body, as saying that rice growers, with trademark rights in their hands, would regulate the exporters’ trade and “there should be no single ownership and the Pakistan Government should control it”. In turn, the growers charge the exporters with trying to depress the market.

India’s basmati exports in 2007-08 fetched Rs 4,334 crore. With the definitional change on basmati including evolved basmati varieties such as Pusa 1121, another Rs 1,000 crore of foreign exchange is likely to add to the export basket.

More Stories on : Rice | IPR | Courts/Legal Issues

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