Judgement protects indigenous knowledge.

• Author: Sampat, Payal
• Position: Intellectual property rights ruling by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office - Environmental Intelligence

A recent decision by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) may add a new twist to the debate over intellectual property rights. In August the PTO canceled a patent on the use of turmeric (Curcuma longa) in healing wounds. The reason: they ruled it was not a new "invention," but a millennial old Indian practice.

The patent was granted in 1995 to two Indian-born medical researchers at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi. The Indian government's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) challenged the patent on the grounds of "prior art," or existing public knowledge. Turmeric's medicinal powers were originally described in ancient texts on ayurveda (an Indian system of herbal medicine that has identified over 1,500 plant-based drugs). The yellow spice, known as haldi in its native India, is commonly applied to open wounds or ingested to treat internal infections.

The success of this challenge may be short-lived, however: by narrowing the scope of their claims, the University of Mississippi researchers hope to be able to obtain a second patent on turmeric. One of the researchers, Dr. Hari Har Cohly, says they may limit their claim to the use of turmeric to heal wounds that have been surgically inflicted, as opposed to generic wounds, as the original patent states.

The PTO's verdict indicates that patent laws in industrial countries may place developing countries at a disadvantage. Something considered public knowledge in the U.S. cannot be patented, but foreign "prior art" isn't recognized unless already documented in a publication or patent. Such documentation is difficult to produce, as traditional wisdom is often orally transmitted - or has simply evolved into common practice. The CSIR did not win its case just by claiming traditional wisdom, but had to produce written documentation of this: an ancient Sanskrit text, and a paper published in 1953 in the Journal of the Indian Medical Association. The expense of hiring international...