Pakistan has welcomed an Australian Federal Court decision rejecting India’s bid to register “Basmati” as a certification trademark for rice.
According to an official statement, the commerce ministry welcomed the court’s dismissal of an appeal by India’s Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA). The court also ordered APEDA to pay the respondent’s legal costs.
APEDA had sought to register “Basmati” as a certification trademark in Australia. However, an Australian Registrar of Trade Marks delegate rejected the application on Dec 22, 2022, ruling that the term could not distinguish rice certified by APEDA from Basmati rice legitimately produced and sold by other traders.
APEDA later challenged the decision before the Federal Court of Australia.
The Registrar’s ruling had noted that Basmati rice is also grown in Pakistan and that Pakistani traders have an equally legitimate right to use the term.
By dismissing APEDA’s appeal, the Federal Court upheld those findings, according to the statement.
The commerce ministry described the ruling as a significant victory for Pakistan’s position that Basmati is historically associated with a growing region spanning Pakistan and India.
It said the decision supported Pakistan’s stance that no single national authority could claim exclusive rights to the term “Basmati” at the expense of producers and exporters in the other country with an equally legitimate claim to the name.
