The Department of Ayush has inked a pact with European Patent Office (EPO) to allow the latter to be closely associated with the digital database of India traditional information before granting patents based on ancient wisdom.
The pact provides cover against infringement of India's rich traditional medicinal heritage having huge economic potential in 34 European Countries, according to S Jalaja, secretary, Department of Ayush.
The EPO has now been given access to our traditional knowledge digital library (TDKL) since February 2. The agreement is valid for three years after which it can be renewed, stated Dr. Samir K Bramachari, director general of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
The TDKL is an original and native digital resource base which has recorded around 2 lakh medical formulations in 30 million A4 size pages in five different languages. It gives the European Patent Office to make sure if Indian traditional knowledge is plagiarized, stated JSD Pani, president, Karnataka Indian Medicine Manufacturers Association (KIMMA).
According to the Foundation of Revitalization of Local Health Traditions, presently, the TDKL lists 81,000 ayurvedic, 1.4 lakh Unani and 12,000 Siddha formulations Since five years, these formulations have been translated from six Indian languages: Sanskrit, Tamil, Hindi, Arabic, Persian and Urdu into five languages: English, German, French, Japanese and Spanish and are used in patent offices worldwide.
Due to the non availability of readily accessible digital data base with the Patent offices in US and Europe, the patents of turmeric and neem formulations was granted to foreign companies. Now with the availability of the TDKL, EPO can have access to all records in the Indian traditional data base, stated Pani.
The agreement will also provide economies of scale on cost and time spent on lawsuits. In fact, it takes anywhere between five to seven years for fighting a granted patent at international level which could amount to expenses between Rs 1 crore and Rs 3 crore.
Since 2007, India is in constant contact with the US Patent and Trademark Office to seek the recognition of TDKL. Acknowledgment and rummaging around for the database at US Patent office, the EPO can safeguard India against much of the future bio-medicinal know-how.
The EPO has already granted 285 patents for the Indian medicinal plants based on properties. These include papaya, Indian long pepper, basil, mint, ginger, aloe vera, psyllium seed husks (Ispaghula), Indian gooseberry, cumin, fenugreek and walnut.
A 200 study on the USPTO patent data revealed that 4896 patients existed on medicinal plants of which 80 per cent were on eight medicinal plants of Indian origin.
A sample survey of 762 patents further revealed that 50 per cent of these patents could have been granted said VK Gupta, scientist, CSIR who is working with TDKL.
Studies carried out in 2003, 2005 and 2008 showed that there are 15,000 and 35,787 and 65,000 patents respectively on Indian medicinal plants granted by patent offices across the world.