The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion on Friday came out with a discussion paper proposing to institute a registrar for identifying the beneficiaries of traditional knowledge in various fields, including medicine art and folklore.
This would enable the community to enjoy a legal right on the traditional knowledge and prevent its unauthorised commercial usage. Having a legal framework to protect traditional knowledge will also lead to benefit sharing between the knowledge holder and the entity that commercially exploits it. Commercial exploitation of traditional knowledge is widely seen in the pharmaceutical industry, fashion designing, ceramics manufacturing and in the music industry without sharing its benefits with the original practitioners.
India, which has strong traditional knowledge, is pressing for a globally binding legal framework to protect its knowledge. Since traditional knowledge has been in the public domain, it cannot get protection from the patent law, which is meant for protecting only inventions with a commercial use.
The proposed system would also ensure protection of India’s rich culture and the knowledge of diverse tribal communities.
Although the discussion paper is not conclusive on the major aspects of the proposed legal framework, it sets the contours of further debate on a comprehensive definition and scope of traditional knowledge protection, that is internationally accepted. The department has invited public comments on the subject.
The discussion paper is the result of a national consultation on the subject, where professor NS Gopalakrishnana of Cochin University of Science and Technology, professor T Ramakrishna of National Law School of India University and Prodipto Ghosh, former environment secretary gave their inputs.
