PETENT ACT

1. The Issue
Turmeric is a tropical herb grown in East India, and the powdered product made from the rhizomes of its flowers has several popular uses worldwide. Turmeric powder, which has a distinctive deep yellow color and bitter taste, is used as a dye, a cooking ingredient, and a litmus in a chemical test, and has medicinal uses as well. In the mid1990s, this product became the subject of a patent dispute with important ramifications for international trade law. A U.S. patent on turmeric was awareded to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in 1995, specifically for the "use of turmeric in wound healing." This patent also granted them the exclusive right to sell and distribute turmeric

2. Description
This case study will investigate two interrelated issues highlighted by the turmeric dispute. First, there is the specific issue of whether the use of turmeric in wound healing should have qualified as a patentable U.S. product - whether it meets the legal criteria of "Novelty, Non-Obviousness, and Utility" - and what India's rights should be with regard to trading the herb bilaterally.

II. Legal Clusters

5. Discourse and Status:
DISAGREE; COMPLETE The general discourse of the bilateral turmeric dispute is of non-agreement, and involved a legal proceeding. The case, however, was resolved, with the court ruling that the U.S. patent be revoked for the "use of turmeric in wound healing."