Patent Law in India: How India Messed up the Mint Patent?
‘Patent’ is a set of exclusive rights, that is usually granted based on following the right procedures elucidated through the patent law in India. The patent is granted to an inventor or his assignee, for a fixed period of time in exchange of public disclosure of an invention or discovery. The invention must be something new and original, such as a manufacturing process, machine or product. Based on patent law in India, the invention must be novel, unique and have industrial application.
Patent Law in India: Chinese Bid to Patent Pudina Curbed by India
India foiled a major bio-piracy bid of a Chinese Pharmaceutical Company, Livzon. The company had applied for the patent, to the European Patent Office (EPO) in 2007. The application claimed the discovery of medical properties of plants ‘pudina’ (mint) and 'kalamegha' (andrographis), for curing H5N1 avian influenza (bird flu). However, the claim was foiled with the help of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL). These organizations were established to protect India’s ancient knowledge, supported by the patent law in India.
Dr V. K. Gupta, the director of the TKDL, sent a letter to the EPO, intimating to the analysts that the medical uses of pudina and kalamegha were originally discovered in India. It also stated that the Chinese claim for mint patent was not based on a novel discovery.
Also, a primeval formula from ancient ayurvedic and unani texts, such as ‘Cakradattah’, 'Bhaisajya Ratnavali, which indicated the medical uses of the plants, was found by the CSIR and the TKDL. This formulation was sent as evidence to the EPO.
On receipt of the letter and this evidence, the EPO cancelled its decision to grant patent to Livzon.
This was indeed needed, we have to stake our honest claims at international level. A word of caution, We should not be content with just one such incident as this would not even amount to winning a battle let alone the war. We need to keep our eyes open for such infringements. But a word of praise for all agencies involved. "Keep up the good work and keep spreading education in Intellectual property rights field."
What our forefathers had gained was huge, we are an ancient society having rightful claims over wide variety of knowledge. But we ought to have a proactive approach, this means instead of counter claiming the patents or objecting to it, we need should be looking towards registering them in the first instance.
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