The substance of the challenge is that the pesticidal extract in question has long been known to and used by the Indian people for protecting their crops. The knowledge of this was therefore available at the time of patenting, to any ordinary person and the difference between it and the patented product, if any, was 'obvious'. As transnationals and other enterprises from the North scour remote regions of the South for genetic resources to patent, 'the battle between native peoples and multinationals is' in the words of Jeremy Rifkin 'likely to be the critical North-South political and economic issue of the coming decade'. In what is seen as the opening round in this confrontation, the neem tree has became the symbol of resistance to the creeping power of global capital. We reproduce an edited version of the petition filed by the coalition of organisations in the US Patent and Trademark office, calling for the revocation of the patent granted to the W R Grace company.
FEW organisms have as long a history of widespread human use as the neem tree.
Ancient texts refer to the neem as 'the blessed tree' and the 'cure for all ailments'. The tree plays a particularly important role within the Indian culture. Several centuries of Indian learning, creativity and experimentation with the neem tree have resulted in a wealth of information on how to harness the tree's potential for use in medicine, fuel and agriculture. The neem tree's value as a pesticide has been known to Indian villagers for hundreds of years. Villagers have developed several ways of extracting the neem's pesticidal emulsions without expensive equipment.