The document discusses biopiracy and traditional knowledge protection in India. It describes how traditional Indian knowledge related to turmeric was patented in the US, leading to India's first successful challenge of a patent based on traditional knowledge. It also outlines how India is working to prevent biopiracy through defensive publication of traditional knowledge in its Traditional Knowledge Digital Library and exploring positive protection under intellectual property law.

1. CHENNAI
III Floor, ‘Creative Enclave’,
148-150, Luz Church Road,
Mylapore,
Chennai - 600 004.
Tel: +91 - 44 - 24984821
BANGALORE
Suite 920, Level 9,
Raheja Towers,
26-27, M G Road,
Bangalore - 560 001.
Tel: +91 - 80 - 65462400
COIMBATORE
#1533, Trichy Road,
Coimbatore – 641018.
Tel: +91 - 422 - 6552921
HYDERABAD
Flat No. A-701,
Brindavan Apartments,
Niloufer Hospital Road,
Redhills, Hyderabad - 500034.
Tel: +91 - 40 - 60506009
COCHIN
Suite 49, 8th Floor, Centre A,
Alapatt Heritage Building,
MG Road, Cochin – 682035
Tel: +91 - 484 - 6506216
EMAIL
info@altacit.com
WEBSITE
www.altacit.com
A S SANGEETHA
The Turmeric – Patent Battle

2. CHENNAI
III Floor, ‘Creative Enclave’,
148-150, Luz Church Road,
Mylapore,
Chennai - 600 004.
Tel: +91 - 44 - 24984821
BANGALORE
Suite 920, Level 9,
Raheja Towers,
26-27, M G Road,
Bangalore - 560 001.
Tel: +91 - 80 - 65462400
COIMBATORE
#1533, Trichy Road,
Coimbatore – 641018.
Tel: +91 - 422 - 6552921
HYDERABAD
Flat No. A-701,
Brindavan Apartments,
Niloufer Hospital Road,
Redhills, Hyderabad - 500034.
Tel: +91 - 40 - 60506009
COCHIN
Suite 49, 8th Floor, Centre A,
Alapatt Heritage Building,
MG Road, Cochin – 682035
Tel: +91 - 484 - 6506216
EMAIL
info@altacit.com
WEBSITE
www.altacit.com
Biopiracy
• Traditional knowledge has always been an easily
accessible treasure and thus has been susceptible to
misappropriation.
• The traditional knowledge, particularly, related to the treatment of various
diseases has provided leads for development of biologically active
molecules by the technology rich countries.
• In other words, traditional knowledge is being exploited for bio
prospecting.
• Also Traditional knowledge is often misappropriated, because it is
conveniently assumed that since it is in public domain, communities have
given up all claims over it.
• Biopiracy can be defined as the stealing of biomedical knowledge from
traditional and indigenous communities or individuals.
• The term can also be used to suggest a breach of a contractual agreement
on the access and use of traditional knowledge to the detriment of the
provider, and also applies to bioprospecting without the consent of the
local communities.

3. CHENNAI
III Floor, ‘Creative Enclave’,
148-150, Luz Church Road,
Mylapore,
Chennai - 600 004.
Tel: +91 - 44 - 24984821
BANGALORE
Suite 920, Level 9,
Raheja Towers,
26-27, M G Road,
Bangalore - 560 001.
Tel: +91 - 80 - 65462400
COIMBATORE
#1533, Trichy Road,
Coimbatore – 641018.
Tel: +91 - 422 - 6552921
HYDERABAD
Flat No. A-701,
Brindavan Apartments,
Niloufer Hospital Road,
Redhills, Hyderabad - 500034.
Tel: +91 - 40 - 60506009
COCHIN
Suite 49, 8th Floor, Centre A,
Alapatt Heritage Building,
MG Road, Cochin – 682035
Tel: +91 - 484 - 6506216
EMAIL
info@altacit.com
WEBSITE
www.altacit.com
Biopiracy: the Indian Experience
• In 2000, CSIR found that almost 80 per cent of the 4,896 references to
individual plant based medicinal patents in the United States Patents Office
that year related to just seven medicinal plants of Indian origin.
• Three years later, there were almost 15,000 patents on such medicines
spread over the United States, UK, and other registers of patent offices.
• In 2005 this number had grown to 35,000, which clearly demonstrates the
interest of developed world in the knowledge of the developing countries.
• Conveniently, none of the patent examiners are from developing countries,
allowing a virtual free pass to stealing indigenous
• knowledge from the Old World.

4. CHENNAI
III Floor, ‘Creative Enclave’,
148-150, Luz Church Road,
Mylapore,
Chennai - 600 004.
Tel: +91 - 44 - 24984821
BANGALORE
Suite 920, Level 9,
Raheja Towers,
26-27, M G Road,
Bangalore - 560 001.
Tel: +91 - 80 - 65462400
COIMBATORE
#1533, Trichy Road,
Coimbatore – 641018.
Tel: +91 - 422 - 6552921
HYDERABAD
Flat No. A-701,
Brindavan Apartments,
Niloufer Hospital Road,
Redhills, Hyderabad - 500034.
Tel: +91 - 40 - 60506009
COCHIN
Suite 49, 8th Floor, Centre A,
Alapatt Heritage Building,
MG Road, Cochin – 682035
Tel: +91 - 484 - 6506216
EMAIL
info@altacit.com
WEBSITE
www.altacit.com
Case of Biopiracy in India : Turmeric
[Patent Battle]
• A tropical herb growth in East India powdered product made from the
rhizomes of its flowers has several popular uses world wide.
• Turmeric power has a distinctive deep yellow color and bitter taste.
• Used as a dye, a cooking ingredient, and a litmus in a chemical test, and has
medicinal uses.
• In the mid-1990’s turmeric became the subject of a patent dispute.
 A U.S. patent (no.5,401,504) on turmeric was awarded to the University
of Mississippi Medical Center in 1995, specifically for the “use of
turmeric in wound healing”.
 Two years later, a complaint was filed by India’s Council of Scientific
and Industrial Research (CSIR).

5. CHENNAI
III Floor, ‘Creative Enclave’,
148-150, Luz Church Road,
Mylapore,
Chennai - 600 004.
Tel: +91 - 44 - 24984821
BANGALORE
Suite 920, Level 9,
Raheja Towers,
26-27, M G Road,
Bangalore - 560 001.
Tel: +91 - 80 - 65462400
COIMBATORE
#1533, Trichy Road,
Coimbatore – 641018.
Tel: +91 - 422 - 6552921
HYDERABAD
Flat No. A-701,
Brindavan Apartments,
Niloufer Hospital Road,
Redhills, Hyderabad - 500034.
Tel: +91 - 40 - 60506009
COCHIN
Suite 49, 8th Floor, Centre A,
Alapatt Heritage Building,
MG Road, Cochin – 682035
Tel: +91 - 484 - 6506216
EMAIL
info@altacit.com
WEBSITE
www.altacit.com
-Contd.
 In India , where turmeric has been used medicinally for thousands of
years, concerns grew about the economically and socially damaging
impact of this legal biopiracy.
 CSIR argued that turmeric has been used for thousands of years for
healing wounds and rashes and therefore its medicinal use was not a
novel invention.
 Their claim was supported by documentary evidence of traditional
knowledge, including ancient sanskrit text and a paper published in
1953 in the Journal of the Indian Medical Association.
 United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) investigated the
validity of the patent.
 In 1997, despite an appeal by the patent holders, the USPTO upheld
the CSIR objections and cancelled the patent.
 The turmeric case was a landmark judgment case as it was for the first
time that a patent based on the traditional knowledge of a developing
country was successfully challenged.

6. CHENNAI
III Floor, ‘Creative Enclave’,
148-150, Luz Church Road,
Mylapore,
Chennai - 600 004.
Tel: +91 - 44 - 24984821
BANGALORE
Suite 920, Level 9,
Raheja Towers,
26-27, M G Road,
Bangalore - 560 001.
Tel: +91 - 80 - 65462400
COIMBATORE
#1533, Trichy Road,
Coimbatore – 641018.
Tel: +91 - 422 - 6552921
HYDERABAD
Flat No. A-701,
Brindavan Apartments,
Niloufer Hospital Road,
Redhills, Hyderabad - 500034.
Tel: +91 - 40 - 60506009
COCHIN
Suite 49, 8th Floor, Centre A,
Alapatt Heritage Building,
MG Road, Cochin – 682035
Tel: +91 - 484 - 6506216
EMAIL
info@altacit.com
WEBSITE
www.altacit.com
Revocation of Turmeric Patent

7. CHENNAI
III Floor, ‘Creative Enclave’,
148-150, Luz Church Road,
Mylapore,
Chennai - 600 004.
Tel: +91 - 44 - 24984821
BANGALORE
Suite 920, Level 9,
Raheja Towers,
26-27, M G Road,
Bangalore - 560 001.
Tel: +91 - 80 - 65462400
COIMBATORE
#1533, Trichy Road,
Coimbatore – 641018.
Tel: +91 - 422 - 6552921
HYDERABAD
Flat No. A-701,
Brindavan Apartments,
Niloufer Hospital Road,
Redhills, Hyderabad - 500034.
Tel: +91 - 40 - 60506009
COCHIN
Suite 49, 8th Floor, Centre A,
Alapatt Heritage Building,
MG Road, Cochin – 682035
Tel: +91 - 484 - 6506216
EMAIL
info@altacit.com
WEBSITE
www.altacit.com
Documentation of Traditional
Knowledge
• India has woken up to the task of protecting her traditional knowledge from
patent bio-piracy. Protection and preservation of traditional knowledge have
been a matter of concern to the developing countries in general and India in
particular. As a result of this, in 1999, the Department of Ayurveda, Yoga &
Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy-(AYUSH), erstwhile Department
of Indian System of Medicine and Homoeopathy (ISM&H) constituted an inter-
disciplinary Task Force, for creating an approach paper on establishing a
Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL).The project TKDL was initiated
in the year 2001.
Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) http://www.tkdl.res.in/
• TKDL is a collaborative project between Council of Scientific and Industrial
Research (CSIR), Ministry of Science and Technology and Department of AYUSH,
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and is being implemented at CSIR. An
inter-disciplinary team of Traditional Medicine (Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha
andYoga) experts, patent examiners, IT experts, scientists and technical officers
are involved in creation of TKDL for Indian Systems of Medicine. The project
TKDL involves documentation of the traditional knowledge available in public
domain in the form of existing literature related to Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and
Yoga, in digitized format in five international languages, which are English,
German, French, Japanese and Spanish.

8. CHENNAI
III Floor, ‘Creative Enclave’,
148-150, Luz Church Road,
Mylapore,
Chennai - 600 004.
Tel: +91 - 44 - 24984821
BANGALORE
Suite 920, Level 9,
Raheja Towers,
26-27, M G Road,
Bangalore - 560 001.
Tel: +91 - 80 - 65462400
COIMBATORE
#1533, Trichy Road,
Coimbatore – 641018.
Tel: +91 - 422 - 6552921
HYDERABAD
Flat No. A-701,
Brindavan Apartments,
Niloufer Hospital Road,
Redhills, Hyderabad - 500034.
Tel: +91 - 40 - 60506009
COCHIN
Suite 49, 8th Floor, Centre A,
Alapatt Heritage Building,
MG Road, Cochin – 682035
Tel: +91 - 484 - 6506216
EMAIL
info@altacit.com
WEBSITE
www.altacit.com
What is mean by Traditional
knowledge?
Traditional knowledge (traditional knowledge), indigenous knowledge
(IK), and local knowledge generally refer to the matured long-standing
traditions and practices of certain regional, indigenous or local
communities. Traditional knowledge also encompasses the wisdom,
knowledge and teaching of these communities. In many cases, traditional
knowledge has been orally passed from person to person for generations.
Some traditional knowledge is expressed through stories, legends,
folklores, rituals, songs and even laws. Other forms of traditional
knowledge are often expressed through different means.
Recently, international attention has turned to the use of intellectual
property laws to preserve, protect and promote traditional knowledge. Three
broad approaches have been developed. The first emphasizes protecting
traditional knowledge as a form of cultural heritage. The second looks at the
protection of traditional knowledge as a collective human right. The third,
taken by the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Intellectual
Property Organization (WIPO) investigates the use of existing or novel
measures to protect traditional knowledge.

9. CHENNAI
III Floor, ‘Creative Enclave’,
148-150, Luz Church Road,
Mylapore,
Chennai - 600 004.
Tel: +91 - 44 - 24984821
BANGALORE
Suite 920, Level 9,
Raheja Towers,
26-27, M G Road,
Bangalore - 560 001.
Tel: +91 - 80 - 65462400
COIMBATORE
#1533, Trichy Road,
Coimbatore – 641018.
Tel: +91 - 422 - 6552921
HYDERABAD
Flat No. A-701,
Brindavan Apartments,
Niloufer Hospital Road,
Redhills, Hyderabad - 500034.
Tel: +91 - 40 - 60506009
COCHIN
Suite 49, 8th Floor, Centre A,
Alapatt Heritage Building,
MG Road, Cochin – 682035
Tel: +91 - 484 - 6506216
EMAIL
info@altacit.com
WEBSITE
www.altacit.com
How can we protect Traditional
knowledge?
Only after the patenting of Turmeric, Neem and Basumati Rice, India and many
developing biodiversity rich country woke up to the danger that the
traditional knowledge was faced with. Two types of intellectual property
protection are being sought:
• Defensive protection and Documentation of Traditional Knowledge: aim
to prevent people outside the community from getting intellectual property
rights over traditional knowledge. India has compiled a searchable database of
traditional medicine Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL,
http://www.tkdl.res.in/) that can be used as evidence of prior art by patent
examiners when assessing patent applications. Defensive strategies might also
be used to protect sacred cultural manifestations like sacred symbols or words
from being registered as trademarks. Documentation helps in preservation,
dissemination, use and management of this knowledge rather than for the
purpose of legal protection. There are also concerns that documentation could
lead to misappropriation.
• Positive protection is the granting of rights that empower communities to
promote their traditional knowledge, control its uses and benefit from its
commercial exploitation. Some uses of traditional knowledge can be protected
through the existing intellectual property system, and few countries have also
developed specific legislation.

10. CHENNAI
III Floor, ‘Creative Enclave’,
148-150, Luz Church Road,
Mylapore,
Chennai - 600 004.
Tel: +91 - 44 - 24984821
BANGALORE
Suite 920, Level 9,
Raheja Towers,
26-27, M G Road,
Bangalore - 560 001.
Tel: +91 - 80 - 65462400
COIMBATORE
#1533, Trichy Road,
Coimbatore – 641018.
Tel: +91 - 422 - 6552921
HYDERABAD
Flat No. A-701,
Brindavan Apartments,
Niloufer Hospital Road,
Redhills, Hyderabad - 500034.
Tel: +91 - 40 - 60506009
COCHIN
Suite 49, 8th Floor, Centre A,
Alapatt Heritage Building,
MG Road, Cochin – 682035
Tel: +91 - 484 - 6506216
EMAIL
info@altacit.com
WEBSITE
www.altacit.com
Indian Patents Act,
Section 10(4)(d)(ii)(D)
if the applicant mentions a biological material in the specification………………………………… such
material is not available to the public, the application shall be completed by depositing the material
to an international depository authority under the Budapest Treaty and by fulfilling the following
conditions, ………………. disclose the source and geographical origin of the biological material in the
specification, when used in an invention.
Section 3: Inventions not patentable
p. Invention which is traditional knowledge which is an aggregation or duplication of known
properties of traditionally known component or components.
FORM 1
Point 12 (iii) of form 1 has a declaration from the applicant which reads as;
The invention as disclosed in the specification uses the biological material from India and
the necessary permission from the competent authority shall be submitted by me/us before
the grant of patent to me/us.
Pre/Post Grant Opposition
Sections 25 (1) and (2).
j. that the complete specification does not disclose or wrongly mentions the source and
geographical origin of the biological material used for the invention
Revocation
p. that the complete specification does not disclose or wrongly mentions the source and
geographical origin of the biological material used for the invention

11. CHENNAI
III Floor, ‘Creative Enclave’,
148-150, Luz Church Road,
Mylapore,
Chennai - 600 004.
Tel: +91 - 44 - 24984821
BANGALORE
Suite 920, Level 9,
Raheja Towers,
26-27, M G Road,
Bangalore - 560 001.
Tel: +91 - 80 - 65462400
COIMBATORE
#1533, Trichy Road,
Coimbatore – 641018.
Tel: +91 - 422 - 6552921
HYDERABAD
Flat No. A-701,
Brindavan Apartments,
Niloufer Hospital Road,
Redhills, Hyderabad - 500034.
Tel: +91 - 40 - 60506009
COCHIN
Suite 49, 8th Floor, Centre A,
Alapatt Heritage Building,
MG Road, Cochin – 682035
Tel: +91 - 484 - 6506216
EMAIL
info@altacit.com
WEBSITE
www.altacit.com
Conclusion
Globalization have caused misuse of traditional knowledge for monopolistic
rights and the ultimate profit its sales. So there is a strict need of awareness
for the traditional procedures and knowledge. Documentation activities
undertaken by developing countries like India are worth recognition.
Therefore the protection, conservation and preservation of the traditional
knowledge and its practice and culture should be of major concern. In order to
prevent the misuse by unauthorized parties of traditional knowledge and
promotion of its use and its importance in development.

12. CHENNAI
III Floor, ‘Creative Enclave’,
148-150, Luz Church Road,
Mylapore,
Chennai - 600 004.
Tel: +91 - 44 - 24984821
BANGALORE
Suite 920, Level 9,
Raheja Towers,
26-27, M G Road,
Bangalore - 560 001.
Tel: +91 - 80 - 65462400
COIMBATORE
#1533, Trichy Road,
Coimbatore – 641018.
Tel: +91 - 422 - 6552921
HYDERABAD
Flat No. A-701,
Brindavan Apartments,
Niloufer Hospital Road,
Redhills, Hyderabad - 500034.
Tel: +91 - 40 - 60506009
COCHIN
Suite 49, 8th Floor, Centre A,
Alapatt Heritage Building,
MG Road, Cochin – 682035
Tel: +91 - 484 - 6506216
EMAIL
info@altacit.com
WEBSITE
www.altacit.com