Report of the Investigation of the United States Patent Office Made by the President's Commission On Economy and Efficiency, December, 1912

That impoverished land has gained nothing from a trade worth millions (although had it obtained patent cover it might have done so). And what about the anti-cancer chemicals found in Asian corals or the material two thousand times sweeter than sugar made by a West African tree? Those genes will be worth millions when cloned — but who owns them? Some companies are quite blatant in their attempts to cull profit from ancient expertise. Basmati rice is an aromatic (and expensive) variety that has long been used in India and Pakistan. Both governments were outraged to find that, in 1998, the Ricetec Corporation of Texas had filed a patent application for its seeds — and, to add insult to injury, that they had been collected by American scientists invited in to search for new genes that might help feed the third world. The West itself is dubious about the actions of its citizens. In 1997 the United States Patent Office overturned an attempt to patent the active ingredient of turmeric as an aid to wound-healing as this had long been used as a folk remedy in India ...»