06-10-2006, 03:54 AM
Hey, those are our ancient remedies!
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But India wants to stop them on that path, cold. It's now databasing millions of pages of ancient cures for patent officers to peruse. The project is called the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library. <!--emo&:rocker--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rocker.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='rocker.gif' /><!--endemo-->
In a roomful of computers cooled by powerful air conditioning, workers are databasing ancient texts, including pictures of yoga positions. Yoga is a $3 billion industry in the US, and somebody once tried to patent yoga, too.
Dr. Jaya Saklani Kala painstakingly types ayurvedic remedies thousand of years old into her computer in alphanumeric code.
DR. JAYA SAKLANI KALA: This is code for saliva, forehead, honey, antiseptic wound cleansing. This is aphrodisiac. We need a code for everything.
The database's software gives each plant and phrase a code. It then converts the information from Hindi, Farsi, Arabic or Sanskrit into English, French, German, Spanish or Japanese. Kala says helping patent officers search the database in their own languages will protect India's wealth of knowledge.
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But India wants to stop them on that path, cold. It's now databasing millions of pages of ancient cures for patent officers to peruse. The project is called the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library. <!--emo&:rocker--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rocker.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='rocker.gif' /><!--endemo-->
In a roomful of computers cooled by powerful air conditioning, workers are databasing ancient texts, including pictures of yoga positions. Yoga is a $3 billion industry in the US, and somebody once tried to patent yoga, too.
Dr. Jaya Saklani Kala painstakingly types ayurvedic remedies thousand of years old into her computer in alphanumeric code.
DR. JAYA SAKLANI KALA: This is code for saliva, forehead, honey, antiseptic wound cleansing. This is aphrodisiac. We need a code for everything.
The database's software gives each plant and phrase a code. It then converts the information from Hindi, Farsi, Arabic or Sanskrit into English, French, German, Spanish or Japanese. Kala says helping patent officers search the database in their own languages will protect India's wealth of knowledge.
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