22/2/2002
A Licence to Put Salt on Chips? That's Absurd!

The British charity Action Aid is angry at the way some corporations are taking advantage of new legislation and filing for patents on foodstuffs. So they thought they would try their own hand at doing the same thing, just to demonstrate how absurd and wrong it was.

Last week Action Aid 'invented' a ready-salted chip and Salil Shetty, ActionAid's Chief Executive, filed a patent application that, if successful, would not only give Action Aid legal rights over their own chip, but would prevent anybody else from getting round their patent - for instance by sprinkling salt on an ordinary takeaway or restaurant chip - unless they first paid a fee to Action Aid.

This could be a tremendous money spinner for the British charity were it not for the fact that Action Aid have said they would not seek to exploit such a patent by charging people to put salt on their french fries, even if the application were to be successful. The idea is simply to demonstrate the absurdity of taking a basic food stuff, modifying it in some subtle way, filing a patent on it and then charging people for doing what they have been doing for a lifetime.

Expecting poor farmers to pay a licence for growing Basmati rice, or for using Turmeric as a herbal remedy, seem just as absurd to them as asking for a licence to put salt on chips here. But such attempts form part of a growing trend by big corporations to profit by patenting what are basically natural processes.

Said Salil Shetty "our chip patent shows how absurd these patent rules are and highlights the ease with which big business is using [them] to deprive people of their rights… Global rules on patenting are currently being reviewed. Tony Blair must seize this opportunity to withdraw his support for food patenting."