Civilisational copyright

The Government's recent achievement in preventing an European laboratory from patenting a medicinal formula that was based on traditional Indian knowhow is only the latest addition to a long list of such successes. In this case, the Ministry of Science and Technology approached the European Patent Office with its opposition to Pangaea laboratories limited's patent application for a hair loss formula that included turmeric, pine bark and green tea. While Pangaea may have only recently ‘discovered' the formula, India was able to prove that the prescription was well-established under Ayurveda and Unani traditions and thereby, secure a decision in its favour. This comes on the heels of a similar win last month against the Colgate-Palmolive Company.

The multinational had sought to patent a mouthwash formula containing the extracts of an herb (Nutmeg-Jayaphal), which had been listed centuries ago as a cure for oral diseases in traditional Indian medical systems. In recent years, India has secured some 200 such patent wins that have helped protect the country's traditional knowledge systems. India's efforts in this regard started with the famous neem tree case. In 1994, the EPO had issued a patent to the American chemicals multinational, WR Grace, for neem, based on an application filed in 1990. India had opposed the application and was supported by former Belgian Health Minister Magda Alevoet and environmental activist Vandana Shiva among others, who argued that the patent amounted to bio-piracy. In 2000, the argument was accepted for the first time and the patent revoked, marking a huge victory, not just for India but also traditional knowledge systems around the world. 

However, to leverage the gains from the 2000 verdict, it was important to make traditional knowledge systems accessible to those examining patent applications. In the case of Indian systems, much of the knowledge was in languages such as Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Tamil. There was no way for even the most well-intentioned patent examiner to verify if India’s traditional knowledge was being violated. To bridge this gap, India set up the Traditional Knowledge Digital library Set up in 2001. A collaborative project between the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research  and the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's Department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy, this online library or database has taken information on more than 2,260,000 medicinal formulations from ancient texts, converted them into accessible information based a classification model, similar to the one used by the World Intellectual Property Organization, and made all of it available in English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish. The primary aim of the TKDl, the only such system in the world, is still to assist patent examiners in major intellectual property offices but it has also emerged as a unique repository of India's traditional wisdom.