To protest biotechnology patent laws, which often give multinational
corporations absolute rights over basic foodstuffs (even if they had been grown
for centuries), a development charity is planning to
patent salted potato chips. By patenting a new pre-salted chip, ActionAid are
hoping to own the rights to the concept of salted potato chips, which in theory
could be used to levy license fees from chip shops under threat of
patent infringement lawsuit.