In the
year 1995, some Indian scientists, doing research work on medicinal
plants, prescribed in Ayurveda, the traditional medical science of
India, made a shocking discovery. An American research outfit,
University of Mississippi Medical Center, located in Jackson U.S.A.
had successfully taken a patent on the medicinal properties of
Turmeric. The antiseptic properties of Turmeric, are part of the
traditional knowledge of India and has been passed on to the next
generation for thousands of years. The persons applying for this
patent had claimed that they had discovered these properties for the
first time. US department of patents, without bothering to find out
the truth, had granted them this patent and in a way had confirmed
their ignorance, about traditional knowledge of India.
As a
result of this patent, no one could have used Turmeric as an
antiseptic without taking permission from this US outfit. Obviously,
they would have gladly given it to anyone on payment of royalty,
deriving monetary benefits illegally, from traditional Indian
knowledge . Council of Scientific and Industrial Research from India,
applied to US patent office in the year 1996 to cancel this patent.
They submitted not less than 32 different references, about
antiseptic properties of Turmeric. Some of the references were more
than 100 years old. After much debate, US patent office canceled the
patent.
Traditional
Medical Sciences from India, such as Ayurveda or Unani medical
systems, know about medicinal properties of thousands of plants,
fruits, flowers and roots traditionally grown in India. Taking undue
advantage of the ignorance of the US department of Patents, of the
traditional Indian knowledge, was truly speaking, an act of
Intellectual Piracy if nothing else.
In the
year 1990, ‘W.R.Grace’, a multinational agricultural production
company from New York, in association with US department of
agricultural production, applied for a patent for medicinal uses of
the oil extracted from the Neem tree. In 1995 when this fact became
known in India, Doctor Vandana Shiva and others filed a petition with
the US patents office for rejecting this application as this was
again traditional Indian knowledge. After much legal wrangling, this
application was finally rejected in 1999.
Ayurveda
prescribes use of Bitter Gourd and Aubergine in the diet of Diabetic
patients. An attempt was made some time back to take a patent based
on this information. In the past, patents have been wrongly granted
by the European Patent Office (EPO) on the use of over 285 Indian
medicinal plants such as papaya, Indian long pepper, kali tulsi,
pudina, ginger, aloe, isabgol, aaonla, jira, soybean, tomato, almond,
walnut and methi. These attempts to highjack traditional Indian
knowledge, brought forth an awareness in the minds of the Indian
scientific community and Government of India to take up some valid
action.
A
group of some 200 research scientists was formed under Council of
Scientific and Industrial Research from India. These people toiled
for more than 8 years to produce a comprehensive reference directory
of more than 200,000 medical formulations based on Ayurvedic, Unani
and Siddha medical systems. This reference document has been put on
the Internet now, as Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL).
This directory can be accessed by any patent office from the world,
and is available in five international languages, namely English,
Japanese, French, German and Spanish. This library presents
scientifically converted information of traditional Indian medicine
from Hindi, Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Tamil language
references in these five languages. India has now also signed a
landmark agreement with the European Patent Office. Under the
three-year agreement, which came into effect on February 3, TKDL’s
database would be available to the patent examiners at EPO (34 member
states) ‘for establishing prior art’, in case of any patent
applications based on Indian systems of medicine (ISM). To avoid
misuse, this web site can be accessed only by Government Patent
Offices of the world.
Opposing
any patent, already granted, is a prohibitively expensive
proposition.. In the case of patent for Basmati rice, the challenge
came only from India although the scented rice is also grown in
Pakistan. This country firstly claimed that it too will join the
battle against Basmati rice patenting. Pakistan chickened out, when
the cost of the legal battle was worked out to something around US $
3,00,000.
Considering
just the legal costs, the importance of TKDL becomes absolutely
clear. In fact, Dr. V.P..Gupta, one of the creators of TKDL, feels
that every year, TKDL would help in rejecting about 2000 patents
applications based on traditional Indian knowledge world-wide and
effectively scare away these Pirates of Indian Traditional Knowledge.
A job well done!
2nd
January 2013
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