[A2k] Israel may be sued for "stealing" Lebanese food - latest "IPR" debacle

[Robin Gross]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]

I couldn't resist forwarding this one ...

Lebanon Claiming Only It Owns Hummus, Falafel, Tabouleh And Baba Gannouj

Another day, another ridiculous intellectual property lawsuit. Along
the same lines as various regions in France declaring that only they
can sell "Champagne" or Greece being the only one allowed to offer
"feta," a group in Lebanon is claiming that various popular middle
eastern foods such as hummus, falafel, tabouleh and baba gannouj are
property of Lebanon and Lebanon alone. In fact, the group is planning
to sue Israel for "stealing" its food. They're actually claiming that
this could be a violation of a "food copyright" (something that
doesn't actually exist). Specifically, the group says that since
Israel sells such foods, it's taking "tens of millions of dollars"
away from Lebanon, where those foods should be bought. This, folks,
is what happens when you build up a society around the idea of
"owning" infinite goods

http://techdirt.com/articles/20081007/1531482481.shtml





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Robin Gross, Executive Director
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