ADDIS ABABA- The Court of The Hague has finally ruled against a Dutch company that held the patent right of teff yesterday. Recently, the Office of the Attorney General filed charges at the International Court of Arbitration (ICA) against the Dutch Company that patented teff grain.
Fitsum Arega, the current Ethiopian Ambassador to the United States yesterday twitted that “The Court of The Hague ruled against the Teff patent holder. This is great news. I hope we can learn from this that our national assets must be protected by Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopia.” The verdict by the Court in The Hague, Netherlands decided that the patent holder’s claim on milling teff is null and void.
The judge stated the patent holds no innovation. Milling teff into finer flour is seen as common knowledge in flour preparation. The embassy of the Netherlands in Ethiopia confirmed the news. “This embassy confirms the November ruling. The reason for the late announcement is the time for appeal was still running.
As no appeal was made, the verdict is now final: the claim to processing teff by patent holder is null and void in the Netherlands,” it said Last year, The Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office announced that it would do everything it can and work closely with every stakeholders for the reclamation of teff patent right in what it said was unfairly claimed by a Dutch company.
The office would resort to every means including diplomacy and legal measure (taking the case to the court) to make sure that justice is served, the office told The Ethiopian Herald. It was in 2004 that the country entered into an agreement with a Dutch company known as Health and Performance Food International for the latter to generate hybrid teff seed.
However, breaking away from the agreement, the company has been producing teff products and supplying it to international market bringing the country huge loss of money and its patent ownership of teff. Afterwards, while the country has organized a committee comprised of various ministries and institutions to get the patent back, so far its efforts have gone fruitless due to the company’s tricky but also illegal escaping mechanisms. Three days ago, Festum also tweeted, wrote on Twitter: “I looked into the Teff patent issue.
It is an issue of our inability to own our national assets in the international legal system. I’m told Federal Attorney General Office is looking into it-to hire international intellectual property lawyers. We need to defend it!” Injera, which is made of Teff is common food across Ethiopia and is getting popularity across the world. It is believed that Ethiopia is the first country to domesticate the teff grain across its highlands and hence the origin of the grain between 4,000 BC and 1,000 BC.
The Ethiopian Herald, February 7/2019
BY TSEGAYE TILAHUN
