Category Archives: Traditional Knowledge

Patent Traditional Knowledge

The Himachal Pradesh High Court Revokes Patent Grant Invoking Section 3(p)

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Earlier (quite a few years ago!), Prashant had reported a 2008 order of the Himachal Pradesh High Court, wherein the Court had examined the validity of the Patent No. 195917, a patent granted to the plaintiffs for a “device used for manually hauling agricultural produce”, on the basis of its alleged similarities to a traditional handicraft called “kilta” (an-all-purpose bamboo basket used to carry any type of load, supported by a rope and tied to the forehead). In this case,…


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Patent Traditional Knowledge

SpicyIP Fellowship 2017-18: The Turmeric Battle

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We are pleased to bring to you a guest post by our Fellowship applicant Aishwarya Ambardekar. Aishwarya is a 4th year student at ILS Law College. This is her first submission for the Fellowship. The Turmeric Battle Aishwarya Ambardekar The world as we know it, understands innovation in a rather binary manner, where only those inventions or ideas that materialise in laboratories or Research Centres are given importance. Innovations undertaken in more informal settings, by common folk such as farmers and…


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Biological Diversity Geographical Indication Plant Variety Protection Traditional Knowledge

Rice & IP: The ongoing Basmati imbroglio, the ‘Green Rice’ mystery & the IR8 celebrations

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Over the last year with the Monsanto-Nuziveedu dispute, India has witnessed one of its biggest IP disputes in the agricultural sector. The Basmati GI dispute also has huge implication but as I’m reminded, often, by several people, geographical indications (GI) do not qualify as IP. These disputes aside, we’ve also come across two other very interesting cases of green rice and IR8 celebrations. Basmati rice – When did geography become an issue? As we’ve written earlier on SpicyIP, there is…


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Others Patent Plant Variety Protection Traditional Knowledge

Where is the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Headed?

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The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) – the Asian answer to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is still being furiously scripted. The US-led TPP and China-led RCEP were always touted as rivals racing to set global trade standards before the conclusion of the other. Well, TPP gunned ahead and is currently in the ratification phase, where as RCEP is yet to be concluded and talks may very well enter 2017. The latest round of RCEP talks ended last month and paints a…


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Drug Regulation Traditional Knowledge

Innovation and Regulation of Ayurvedic medicine: CSIR’s BGR-34, nimensulide in Ayurvedic medicine and other such stories

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A few years ago, Open magazine published an excellent cover story “Ayurveda: Hoax or Science?” by Priyanka Pulla, one of India’s best science journalists. (She’s written for us on a couple of occasions over here and here). That cover story discussed several issues surrounding Ayurvedic drugs and how despite having a Rs. 8,000 crore market in India there is still not enough evidence for modern medicine to prescribe any Ayurvedic medication. In her story Priyanka asks “Why hasn’t the dazzling…


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Traditional Knowledge

Traditional Knowledge Protection: What is the way forward?

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Recently, newspaper articles have been reporting that the Kerala State Government has started a vetting process for its proposed Draft Bill on Traditional Knowledge(TK). Although we do not have access to the Bill, according to secondary sources, the Bill proposes the constitution of people’s trusts for the protection of Traditional Knowledge at the Panchayat and District level. This is understood to be in line with the Biodiversity Committees and the accepted principles of Prior Informed Consent and Access and Benefit…


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Patent Traditional Knowledge

Evaluating the veracity of CSIR-TKDL claims

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In the recent past, CSIR -TKDL (Traditional knowledge digital library) has gone on an overdrive touting several sensational claims. This post aims to evaluate the veracity of these claims and also examine whether the investment involved in the TKDL effort is actually worthwhile. In fact, our friends at IP Kat particularly Darren Smyth and Tufty the Cat got the debate started and have written a couple of posts regarding this. You can read these posts here and here. CSIR –…


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Traditional Knowledge

Guest Post: Safeguarding the Sacredness of Traditional Knowledge – an Argument for a Sui Generis Framework for its Protection

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With the current debates and discussions going on around Traditional Knowledge (for e.g., see Praveen Raj’s guest post here, or IPKat’s recent post here) we’re happy to bring our readers a sharp guest post by Rahul Bajaj looking into the intricacies of how a sui generis framework for TK could/should work. Rahul Bajaj is a 4th year law student from Nagpur and is passionate about constitutional law, intellectual property law, cyber law and disability law. He is particularly interested in studying the…


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Traditional Knowledge

Guest Post: Towards a Nuanced Approach to Protection of Traditional Knowledge

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Recently, IPKat carried a post titled Knowledge is Power; Traditional Knowledge is…? which appeared skeptical of the discourse around protection of Traditional Knowledge. The post argued that this discourse suffers from fundamental lack of clarity around key aspects such as the definition of TK, wider justifications for its protection, the scope of protection and to whom the benefits of TK protection should be granted. While it is true that there is no international consensus on the definition of TK, India…


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Traditional Knowledge

Petition to Save the Handlooms Reservation Act, 1985

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Change.org is presently carrying an interesting petition addressed to the Prime Minister of India- one that is lobbying against the repeal of the Handlooms Reservation Act, 1985. The Handlooms Reservation Act is a small and innocous looking legislation (available here). The crux of this Act is S. 5 which prohibits the production of reserved articles by any loom other than a handloom. This provides a degree of protection for handloom weavers and their products. However, it appears that there is…


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