Patenting aspects of Traditional Knowledge and Natural Products. Case study of Curcuma & Neem. Introduction Meaning Of Traditional Knowledge Patents And Traditional Knowledge In India Traditional Knowledge In Danger Turmeric Patent Neem Patent WHAT INDIA NEEDS TO DO?

1. Patenting aspects of Traditional Knowledge
and Natural Products. Case study of
Prepared By:
MOHAMMAD KHALID
(Assistant Professor)
Krishna Pharmacy College, Bijnor (UP)

2. Contents:
Introduction
Meaning Of Traditional Knowledge
Patents And Traditional Knowledge In India
Traditional Knowledge In Danger
Turmeric Patent
Neem Patent
WHAT INDIA NEEDS TO DO?
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3. Introduction
 Protections of the Traditional Knowledge of the local and
indigenous communities seem to be one of the most
contentious and complicated issue.
 Traditional Knowledge was treated as Knowledge in the
public demeans for free exploitation without showing any
respect or concern for the effort taken by the communities to
preserve and promote the same.
 Traditional knowledge (TK) associated with the biological
resources is the knowledge about a country‘s biodiversity; the
applied uses and applications of biological resources and the
prevalent practices.
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4. MeaningOf Traditional Knowledge
Traditional Knowledge (TK), variously referred to as
“traditional knowledge”, “traditional ecological knowledge”,
“local knowledge”, “folk knowledge” is knowledge developed
by local and indigenous communities over time in response to
the needs of their specific local environment.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) defines
traditional knowledge as ―
“Indigenous cultural and intellectual property,
“indigenous heritage” and “customary heritage
rights”.
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5. Patents And Traditional Knowledge In India
The way intellectual property rights have been designed in
modern commerce, traditional knowledge cannot be protected.
For instance, traditional knowledge cannot be patented
because such knowledge lacks inventive character, because of
the inherent lack of novelty.
In India, the provisions of the Biological Diversity Act and
Forest Rights Act of 2006 both provide a shield for tribal
traditional knowledge, by, one the one hand, respecting and
protecting the knowledge of the local communities related to
biodiversity and on the other, declaring that the intellectual
property rights, in such knowledge belongs primarily to
members of the community collectively.
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6. • India possesses a rich traditional knowledge which is generally
being passed down by word of mouth from one generation to
another.
• Most part of this traditional knowledge is inaccessible to common
since it is described in ancient classical and other literature.
• There is also a threat of misuse of such knowledge through
obtaining patents on non-original innovations which is a great loss
to the country. TKDL(Traditional Knowledge Digital Library)
addresses these issues.
• TKDL is an initiative to provide the information on traditional
knowledge existing in the country, in languages and format
understandable by patent examiners at International Patent Offices
(IPOs), so as to prevent the grant of wrong patents.
Continue……
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7. Continue……
TKDL is a collaborative project of the Council of Scientific
and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Department of
Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and
Homoeopathy, is situated in Ghaziabad, U.P. TKDL acts as a
bridge between the traditional knowledge information existing
in local languages and the patent examiners at IPOs.
The TRIPS Agreement also has some provisions having
limited application to the protection of Traditional Knowledge.
This will happen by traditional knowledge being widely and
universally accepted within “western” or “modern” innovation
protection systems and becoming a reference point within the
regular operations of the international patent system.
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8. Traditional Knowledge In Danger
The national knowledge commission India recommended to
protect traditional knowledge and said - Establish goals for
conservation of natural resources:
A. Support non-Government and corporate initiatives for
promotion of traditional health sciences.
Promote international cooperation
Support primary healthcare in rural areas
Create a major re-branding exercise of Indian traditional medicine
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9. Turmeric is a tropical herb grown in east India.
Turmeric powder is widely used in India as a medicine, a food
ingredient and a dye to name a few of its uses.
It is used as a blood purifier, in treating the common cold, and as
an anti-parasitic for many skin infections.
The Patent:
In 1995 two Indian scientists working in the U.S. were
granted a patent for a method of: “promoting healing of a
wound by administering Turmeric to a patient afflicted with
the wound.” 81 The patent was assigned to the University of
Mississippi Medical Center.
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10. Plaintiff:
The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)
of India challenged the patent in 1996.3 CSIR claimed that
the patent lacked novelty as the use of Turmeric as a
method for healing wounds was age old in India and
therefore a part of the prior art. CSIR presented 32
references, some of them over a hundred years old, some
references are:
The Effect of Indigenous Remedies on Wounds
J. Ind. Med. Asso (1953)
The Ayurvedic Pharmacopea of India (1986)
Selected Medicinal Plants of India (1992)
Bustanul Mufredat (1867)
Khazanatul Adviy, Vol-3 (1920
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11. Defendant
The inventors chose to pursue the case further on the
grounds that-
“the powder and paste had different physical properties, i.e. bio-
availability and absorbability, and therefore, one of ordinary skill
in the art would not expect, with any reasonable degree of
certainty, that a powdered material would be useful in the same
application as a paste of the same material. The inventors, further,
mentioned that oral administration was available only with honey
and honey itself was considered to have wound healing
properties.”
• The USPTO however rejected this objection and stated that
both paste and powder were equivalent in relation the
references submitted by CSIR. In 1997 the claims were
rejected a second time, and in 1998 the re-examination
certificate was issued which signified the end of the case.
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12. The NEEM tree is a tropical evergreen tree native to India and is
also found in other southeast countries.
In India, neem is known as “the village pharmacy” because of its
healing versatility, and it has been used in Ayurvedic medicine
for more than 4,000 years due to its medicinal properties.
Neem is also called ‘arista’ in Sanskrit- a word that means
‘perfect, complete and imperishable’.
The seeds, bark and leaves contain compounds with proven
antiseptic, antiviral, antipyretic, anti-inflammatory, antiulcer and
antifungal uses.
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13. Problem raised in Neem Patent :
In the year 1971, a timber importer form US imported neem seeds to
plant neem trees in his headquarters in Wisconsin.
He also conducted performance and safety tests upon the pesticidal
properties of neem and got clearance from the US Environmental
Protection Agency known as EPA.
After three years he sold the patent to a multinational corporate
company which is known as W R Grace and Co. and by the year 1985,
several US and Japanese corporations were trying to find and
formulation of emulsions for toothpaste production it of Neem.
Subsequently in the year 1992, the corporate W R Grace and co
claimed rights for the pesticide emulsion begotten out of Neem seeds.
And by this, it began to sue Indian companies for making such
emulsions.
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14. Dispute:
According to India‟s claim, it was stated
that Neem is an indigenous product and it is
still in practice as a form of traditional
knowledge in India.
It was also said that Neem if granted patent
it would affect the poor farmers and by this
the Indian economy will also be harmed.
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15. Neem campaign in India:
A group of individuals and several NGO‟s
initiated their Neem campaign and this was
done to mobilise the worldwide people for
support and to protect the traditional
knowledge systems and also protect Indian
traditional products from biopiracy.
The Neem Case was the first initiative to
challenge US and European patents with
regard to biopiracy.
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16. Case judgement:
On July 30,1997 the European Patent Office
(EPO) accepted the arguments of Indian
scientists thus this resulted in rejection of
patent granted by the iUS patent office to
W R Grace and co.
The argument which was accepted on whole
was the use of Neem and its products in
India for a period of more than 4000 years.
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17. WHAT INDIA NEEDS TO DO?
Using the turmeric and neem case, India needs to challenge
the WTO ruling in the TRIPs dispute initiated by the US.
The Ruling states that India has "failed to implement a
mechanism for preserving novelty and priority".
However, when 'novelty' itself is under question as in the
case of turmeric, neem and countless other cases of
biopiracy, 'preserving novelty' by introducing US like
patent laws in India amounts to perpetuating Biopiracy.
There are strong grounds for challenging the WTO
decision. India should not let this opportunity pass.
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18. 1. http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jhss/papers/Vol3 issue1/
F0313542.pdf?id=5696
2. http://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download?func=downloadFile&rec
ordOId=1555871&fileOId=1563800
3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3038276
4. https://www.mondaq.com/india/Intellectual-Property/
586384/Traditional-Knowledge-And-Patent-Issues-An-
Overview-Of-Turmeric-Basmati-Neem-Cases
5. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK92752/
6. https://www.slideshare.net/BhavanaRohidekar/intellectual-
property-rights-neem?from_action=save
7. https://acadpubl.eu/hub/2018-119-17/2/105.pdf
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