Cloud Computing Law

Developed from experience gained over the centuries and adapted to the local culture and environment, Traditional Knowledge/Traditional medicinal practices were transmitted orally from generation to generation. It tends to be collectively owned and takes the form of stories, songs, folklore, proverbs etc. attached to cultural values, beliefs, rituals, community laws and local language.

Research in Traditional Medicines shall be encouraged for the better understanding of the mechanism of action of drugs being used, chemical reactions happening during its processing by the body, active principles responsible for the particular action of the drug and the identification of the molecules responsible for toxicity reduction etc. The potential portfolios of research include standardization of various drugs, modifications in the 'form' and 'route' of drug administration, enhancement of shelf-life of the drug, quality standards of drug production, and innovations in processing, packaging, storage, transport, delivery etc. There is no bar on the researchers to take out a patent on the substantially improved version of Traditional Knowledge or on development of new drugs based on Traditional Medicine principles.

However misappropriation of Traditional Knowledge by private business outfits has become quite rampant nowadays, owing to the vulnerability of it being 'passed off' as inventions. Though 'Intellectual Property' does not include 'knowledge' in the strict sense, plenty of patents have already been taken on Traditional Knowledge (Especially Traditional Medicines). Of course, there are a few sagas of successful revocation of some of those patents, but at the cost of exchequer. 

The patent Examiners are not left with any choice other than granting a patent on an "invention" reaching his table "in the form of a document", if it "fits to his logic" that it is an industrial innovation and not in the public domain. Many Corporate establishments pass off "Traditional Knowledge" as if it is an invention made by them and many a times it is easy for them to get through the formalities since such knowledge is not sufficiently codified and made available to the Examiner in a searchable database. In the recent past, CSIR India has been engaged with creating a