Scientists representing herbal sector have strongly objected to the draft guidelines for patenting traditional knowledge and biological material issued by the Controller General of Patents Designs and Trademarks (CGPDTM) for which comments are solicited before March 15, 2013.

Two months ago, the patent office had circulated the draft guidelines and asked for comments related to granting of patents on traditional knowledge and biological related applications. This brought a panel of experts from the academia and industry to the fore for a brainstorming session held recently at the Pravin Gandhi College of Law, Mumbai,

Indian Patent Office (IPO) is granting patents on the use of traditional knowledge (TK) of India, particularly relating to the Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha systems of medicine. The patents have been granted on inventions related to biological resources obtained from India without taking adequate care to observe the mandate of law. This is inspite of the fact that other international patent offices are objecting to the grant of such patents on the basis of prior art evidence retrieved from the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL), said Dr Gopakumar G Nair, CEO of Patent Gurukul.

Delving further on the importance of innovation in the systems of traditional knowledge, Dr DB Anantha Narayana, chairman, Herbs and Herbal Products Committee of the Scientific Body of Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission said that only originality in research would help to promote investments in this field. Currently, investments in these areas are dismally low. While protecting TK per se, if innovations which meet the inventive criteria are not given protection under patent law, there will be further reduction in research. Such inventive steps are already happening in national laboratories, academia and private research institutions and industry.

The congregation of experts are also working to identify the areas which need to change in the guidelines. The panel also conducted the sessions with clear focus to recognise research results which fall into inventive steps criteria, that seems to have been completely ignored and listed as non-patentable in the draft guidelines, said Dr Narayana.

“We are emphasizing the importance of existing traditional knowledge to enable its benefits to reach the masses through the patent system. Now these draft guidelines are too stringent. We therefore viewed it as protectionist measures which would dissuade promotion innovation in India. The demand  is not for patenting what is already known but what is invention through application of science and technology,” said Dr LR Dwivedi, representative Pravin Gandhi College of Law.

The panel also further emphasized that herbal medicines required more research support from the government.