Page "Banisteriopsis caapi" Paragraph 13

The caapi vine itself has been the subject of a dispute between U. S. entrepreneur Loren Miller and the Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin ( COICA ).

In 1986, Miller obtained a US patent on a variety of B. caapi.

COICA argued the patent was invalid because Miller's variety had been previously described in the Herbarium of the University of Michigan, and was therefore neither new nor distinct.

The patent was overturned in 1999 ; however, in 2001, the US Patent Office reinstated the patent because the law at the time the patent was granted did not allow a third party such as COICA standing to object.

The Miller patent expired in 2003.

B. caapi is now being cultivated commercially in Hawaii.