Geographical indications and the Trade Related Property Rights Agreement (TRIPS): A case study of Basmati rice exports

The Trade Related Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement which seeks to harmonize global intellectual property laws has been a major factor in strengthening worldwide property rights systems. However, since its formulation, the TRIPS agreement has been the subject of considerable controversy and a source of concern among developing nations that feel it favors developed countries. In particular, the protection of traditional knowledge has been a cause of debate over the granting of property rights to firms for minor alterations of traditional practices or varieties. Geographical indications (GIs) are one aspect of intellectual property that may afford protection to traditional knowledge without conferring absolute power to any one individual. Yet, many developing countries have failed to take advantage of this form of protection, and argue that the current TRIPS act does not go far enough to protect traditional products.; Though there has been a lot of speculation on the impact of TRIPS and the strengthening of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) system in developing countries, there is still a dearth of empirical studies on the actual impact of ineffectual IPRs. The recent controversy over the granting of patenting rights to three new strains of Basmati rice to RiceTec, Inc. by the US Patent and Trademark Office is used as an example to determine the impact of inadequate protection of intellectual property and to analyze whether current protection provided by TRIPS is adequate. While data limitations impacted the empirical analysis, we do feel that enough evidence is provided to caution nations to move more quickly to institute policies such as geographical indications and that there may be a need to make these indications more specific in future trade talks in order to protect traditional varieties.; The theoretical model indicates that current protection under Article 22 may not necessarily be inadequate and that additional protection is likely to benefit GIs which have closer substitutes. The empirical model which examines the degree of substitutability between Basmati rice and other rice varieties in the US domestic market shows that Pakistani Basmati rice is the closest substitute to US long grain rice indicating the need to maintain the distinctiveness of Pakistan Basmati rice in future.