<nettime> News-India: Japanese company wants to patent curry

[Eustaquio Santimano <ejs@image.dk>]

Japanese company wants to patent curry

A Japanese company has stunned fans of Indian food by applying for a
patent on curry, according to a British Sunday newspaper. 

The House Foods Corporation is trying to take out a patent on the dish
cooked every day by hundreds of millions of people on the Indian
subcontinent and which has become a favourite in restaurants throughout
Britain. 

''Not content with taking over world markets for cars and camcorders,
entrepreneurs in the land of the rising sun have developed a taste for
tikka masala,'' The Independent on Sunday reported yesterday. 

In application no 06090838 to the Japanese patent office, House Foods
lists two Japanese - Hirayama Makoto and Ohashi Sachiyo - as ''inventors''
of curry, and gives a basic recipe for a curry that would not impress
connoisseurs, it said. 

The newspaper said that under World Trade Organisation rules the men
would, if their application succeeded, be able to claim royalties on all
curry and curry products entering Japan. The Indian government views the
application as ''a matter of concern.'' The Independent said. 

UNI


#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net