of texas company founded 1990 headquarters houston texas key people michael gumina ceo products hybrid seed rice consumer rice number of employees 250 website www.ricetec.com ricetec inc. is a private company based in alvin tx and headquartered in houston tx that develops and produces hybrid rice seed for the american and various international markets . ricetec also owns the comnsumer brand name riceselect which markets texmati brand rice in grocery stores throughout north america . 1 the company was founded in 1990 as a foreign for profit corporation and is owned by the prince of liechtenstein foundation . 2 3 ricetec was the first and is currently the only company to commercialize hybrid rice in the americas . citation needed contents 1 hybrid seed rice 2 litigation 2.1 basmati patent controversy 2.2 seed quality lawsuit 3 see also 4 references hybrid seed rice edit development of hybrid rice began in the united states in 1980 as a partnership between the china national seed corporation and ring around seed corporation . these early attempts at growing hybrid rice were met with limited success due to problems in production and grain characteristics . in 1986 farms of texas co. at the time a large corporate farm became part of the partnership to help develop better production practices and further research . 4 farms of texas co. was re formed as ricetec inc. in 1990 and formed a partnership with the chinese national hybrid rice research center in 1993 to provide ricetec with exclusive access to chinese germplasm . 5 ricetec marketed its first commercial hybrid rice line in 2000 with the introduction of the hybrid xl6 followed shortly by xl7 and xl8 in 2002 . 5 ricetec introduced its first newpath herbicide resistant rice in a partnership with basf known as clearfield xl8 in 2003 . 6 litigation edit basmati patent controversy edit ricetec became widely known in the late 1990s due to an attempt by the company to patent basmati rice . 7 basmati rice had historically been grown in india and pakistan for many centuries however neither country had ever patented the particular variety of rice . the claiming of the patent by ricetec angered many farmers officials and ngos in the region who perceived the act as theft of intellectual property and vowed to fight the patent . 8 9 the patent was originally accepted by the us patent office in 1997 but was officially challenged by the indian government in 2000 and most patent claims were overturned in the us in 2002 . 8 10 11 despite this ricetec continues to market their texmati brand of rice as long grain american basmati although no patents or trademarks on the title basmati are currently held by the company a current trademark is however held for texmati . 12 seed quality lawsuit edit a countersuit in response to a suit filed by ricetec for non payment was filed against ricetec on july 6 2012 in green county arkansas by scott meredith a rice farmer from green county . the suit alleged that mr. meredith had been sold both impure and defective seed by ricetec and also accused ricetec of negligence breach of contract breach of warranty and violating the arkansas deceptive trade practices act for misrepresenting and mislabeling its seed . 13 according to the lead attorney for the plaintiff the hybrid seed rice he scott meredith purchased had inferior milling characteristics that hurt marketability and did not yield as was promised by the company . 14 the case received widspread attention in the rice producing areas of the united states and prompted rictec ceo john nelsen to issue a statement rebuffing all allegations and promising to fight the lawsuit . 15 in november 2012 a judge dismissed the claim against ricetec . 16 see also edit basmati jasmati prince of liechtenstein foundation navdanya henry beachell references edit ricetec inc . houston chronicle . retrieved 17 march 2013 . company overview of ricetec inc . bloomberg businessweek . retrieved 17 march 2013 . nelson antosh . using best brains on modified grains rice seed outfit wants to spread word on hybrids . houston chronicle . retrieved 17 march 2013 . beachell h.m. 21 25 september 1987 . the need for a global rice research system . progress in irrigated rice research 323 . a b walton m. 2003 . hybrid rice for mechanized agriculture . hybrid rice for food security poverty alleviation and environmental protection 97 104 . robinson elton . hybrid rice excels in field . delta farm press . retrieved 20 march 2013 . usa expired 5663484 eugenio s. sarreal novel basmati rice lines and grains issued 09 02 1997 a b mukherjee utsav . a study of the basmati case india us basmati rice dispute the geographical indication perspective . doi 10.2139 ssrn .114320 . retrieved 19 march 2013 . saritha rai 2001 08 25 . india u.s. fight on basmati rice is mostly settled . the new york times . retrieved 19 march 2013 . usa reexamination certificate issued 90 005 709 basmati rice lines and grains issued 1 29 2002 usa ricetec statement regarding reexamination of u.s. patent no. 5 663 484 . just food . retrieved 19 march 2013 . texmati white rice . riceselect . retrieved 19 march 2013 . ricetec inc. vs. scott meredith d b a scott meredith farms partnership greene co.circuit 7 6 2012 . text farmers in louisiana and texas join ricetec lawsuit . associated press . the times picayune . retrieved 21 march 2013 . keller rich . ricetec to defend its seed in court . ag professional . retrieved 21 march 2013 . keller rich november 25 2012 . judge dismisses claims against ricetec . agprofessional.com . retrieved 25 february 2015 . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title ricetec & oldid 738384117 categories agriculture companies of the united statescompanies established in 1990hidden categories all articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from february 2015 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk 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