Turmeric patent battle

CHENNAIIII 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

HYDERABADFlat No. A-701,

Brindavan Apartments,Niloufer Hospital Road,

Redhills, Hyderabad - 500034. Tel: +91 - 40 - 60506009

COCHINSuite 49, 8th Floor, Centre A,

Alapatt Heritage Building,MG Road, Cochin – 682035

Tel: +91 - 484 - 6506216

EMAIL

[email protected]

WEBSITE

www.altacit.com

A S SANGEETHA

The Turmeric – Patent Battle



Tel: +91 - 44 - 24984821



Bangalore - 560 001.Tel: +91 - 80 - 65462400


Coimbatore – 641018.Tel: +91 - 422 - 6552921






Tel: +91 - 484 - 6506216

EMAIL

[email protected]

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.



Tel: +91 - 44 - 24984821



Bangalore - 560 001.Tel: +91 - 80 - 65462400


Coimbatore – 641018.Tel: +91 - 422 - 6552921






Tel: +91 - 484 - 6506216

EMAIL

[email protected]

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.



Tel: +91 - 44 - 24984821



Bangalore - 560 001.Tel: +91 - 80 - 65462400


Coimbatore – 641018.Tel: +91 - 422 - 6552921






Tel: +91 - 484 - 6506216

EMAIL

[email protected]

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).



Tel: +91 - 44 - 24984821



Bangalore - 560 001.Tel: +91 - 80 - 65462400


Coimbatore – 641018.Tel: +91 - 422 - 6552921






Tel: +91 - 484 - 6506216

EMAIL

[email protected]

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.



Tel: +91 - 44 - 24984821



Bangalore - 560 001.Tel: +91 - 80 - 65462400


Coimbatore – 641018.Tel: +91 - 422 - 6552921






Tel: +91 - 484 - 6506216

EMAIL

[email protected]

WEBSITE

www.altacit.com

Revocation of Turmeric Patent



Tel: +91 - 44 - 24984821



Bangalore - 560 001.Tel: +91 - 80 - 65462400


Coimbatore – 641018.Tel: +91 - 422 - 6552921






Tel: +91 - 484 - 6506216

EMAIL

[email protected]

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.



Tel: +91 - 44 - 24984821



Bangalore - 560 001.Tel: +91 - 80 - 65462400


Coimbatore – 641018.Tel: +91 - 422 - 6552921






Tel: +91 - 484 - 6506216

EMAIL

[email protected]

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.



Tel: +91 - 44 - 24984821



Bangalore - 560 001.Tel: +91 - 80 - 65462400


Coimbatore – 641018.Tel: +91 - 422 - 6552921






Tel: +91 - 484 - 6506216

EMAIL

[email protected]

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.

http://www.tkdl.res.in/



Tel: +91 - 44 - 24984821



Bangalore - 560 001.Tel: +91 - 80 - 65462400


Coimbatore – 641018.Tel: +91 - 422 - 6552921






Tel: +91 - 484 - 6506216

EMAIL

[email protected]

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 patentablep. Invention which is traditional knowledge which is an aggregation or duplication of known properties of traditionally known component or components.

FORM 1Point 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 OppositionSections 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

Revocationp. that the complete specification does not disclose or wrongly mentions the source andgeographical origin of the biological material used for the invention



Tel: +91 - 44 - 24984821



Bangalore - 560 001.Tel: +91 - 80 - 65462400


Coimbatore – 641018.Tel: +91 - 422 - 6552921






Tel: +91 - 484 - 6506216

EMAIL

[email protected]

WEBSITE

www.altacit.com

Conclusion

Globalization have caused misuse of traditional knowledge for monopolisticrights 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 toprevent the misuse by unauthorized parties of traditional knowledge and promotion of its use and its importance in development.



Tel: +91 - 44 - 24984821



Bangalore - 560 001.Tel: +91 - 80 - 65462400


Coimbatore – 641018.Tel: +91 - 422 - 6552921






Tel: +91 - 484 - 6506216

EMAIL

[email protected]

WEBSITE

www.altacit.com

Turmeric patent battle

Law

Transcript of Turmeric patent battle