10-22-2003, 01:46 PM
I am not sure if it goes in here, admins feel free to suitable thread. Tx.
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[url="http://www.telegraphindia.com/1031022/asp/nation/story_2486849.asp"]http://www.telegraphindia.com/1031022/asp/...ory_2486849.asp[/url]
Piracy shield for Ayurveda
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi, Oct. 21: A database of 36,000 traditional medicine
formulations gleaned and translated from ancient Ayurvedic texts has
emerged as India's newest tool to fight biopiracy and unfair
international patents.
The government-funded database of formulations based on medicinal
plants and herbs used in India for centuries will be made available
to patents authorities in the US, Europe, Japan and elsewhere to flag
India's traditional knowledge, a scientist associated with the
project said.
The database is intended to prevent international patents offices
from honouring unfair claims such as the patent on turmeric as a
wound healing agent issued by the US patents office to US-based
scientists in the mid-1990s.
The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) had
successfully got the US patent on turmeric revoked, but there are
concerns that the world is still largely unaware of the rich
reservoir of traditional plant-based medicinal formulations that have
been known and used in India for centuries.
Medicinal formulations in Ayurvedic texts cannot be patented because
a patent is valid only if an invention is not in the public domain.
A team of 30 Ayurveda experts, two patent examiners and scientists at
the CSIR's National Institute of Science Communication and
Information Resources in New Delhi have completed 36,000 entries in
the traditional knowledge database.
The first phase of the database project involved documenting
information on Ayurveda in a digitised format in English, German,
French, Spanish and Japanese.
CSIR director-general Raghunath Mashelkar said researchers around the
world will be able to use this library.
International patent examiners had until now no source to fall back
on when considering the patentability of any claimed invention
dealing with traditional knowledge because the literature related to
traditional knowledge remained hidden in diverse sources.
Although India could get the patent on turmeric revoked, the legal
battle to get a patent re-examined is expensive and can be time-
consuming.
The knowledge database would provide an easily accessible and
retrievable source of knowledge for patent examiners to verify
claims. It could act as a bridge between traditional knowledge and
modern science, a CSIR scientist said.
---
[url="http://www.telegraphindia.com/1031022/asp/nation/story_2486849.asp"]http://www.telegraphindia.com/1031022/asp/...ory_2486849.asp[/url]
Piracy shield for Ayurveda
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi, Oct. 21: A database of 36,000 traditional medicine
formulations gleaned and translated from ancient Ayurvedic texts has
emerged as India's newest tool to fight biopiracy and unfair
international patents.
The government-funded database of formulations based on medicinal
plants and herbs used in India for centuries will be made available
to patents authorities in the US, Europe, Japan and elsewhere to flag
India's traditional knowledge, a scientist associated with the
project said.
The database is intended to prevent international patents offices
from honouring unfair claims such as the patent on turmeric as a
wound healing agent issued by the US patents office to US-based
scientists in the mid-1990s.
The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) had
successfully got the US patent on turmeric revoked, but there are
concerns that the world is still largely unaware of the rich
reservoir of traditional plant-based medicinal formulations that have
been known and used in India for centuries.
Medicinal formulations in Ayurvedic texts cannot be patented because
a patent is valid only if an invention is not in the public domain.
A team of 30 Ayurveda experts, two patent examiners and scientists at
the CSIR's National Institute of Science Communication and
Information Resources in New Delhi have completed 36,000 entries in
the traditional knowledge database.
The first phase of the database project involved documenting
information on Ayurveda in a digitised format in English, German,
French, Spanish and Japanese.
CSIR director-general Raghunath Mashelkar said researchers around the
world will be able to use this library.
International patent examiners had until now no source to fall back
on when considering the patentability of any claimed invention
dealing with traditional knowledge because the literature related to
traditional knowledge remained hidden in diverse sources.
Although India could get the patent on turmeric revoked, the legal
battle to get a patent re-examined is expensive and can be time-
consuming.
The knowledge database would provide an easily accessible and
retrievable source of knowledge for patent examiners to verify
claims. It could act as a bridge between traditional knowledge and
modern science, a CSIR scientist said.