Statement by India at the Inter Governmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Traditional Knowledge, Genetic Resources and Folklore (3-7 May 2010) Statement by India at the Inter Governmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Traditional Know..
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Statement by India at the Inter Governmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Traditional Knowledge, Genetic Resources and Folklore (3-7 May 2010)

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 Mr Chairman,

 

 At the outset, we would like to congratulate you on your election as the Chair and also convey our best wishes to the two vice chairs.

 

My delegation is appreciative of the spirit of collaboration and accommodation shown by all the member States of the World Intellectual Property Organization and the efforts of the Chair of the General Assembly in enabling a consensus for continuation of the Committee and for more focused deliberations towards a legally binding treaty on Traditional knowledge, Traditional Cultural expressions and Genetic Resources.  We sincerely hope that the future work of the Inter Governmental Committee and that of the Inter-sessions Working Group will adequately address the concerns of the Member States on this issue.  The 15th session of IGC saw a definite progress and examination of texts also commenced. I hope that the momentum picks up in this session and we are able to achieve consensus on the work of the inter-sessions as also see greater engagement and progress on the texts that have been circulated by the Secretariat.
         

 

India has a vast resource of traditional knowledge that is well documented in many languages  including  Sanskrit, Hindi, Urdu, Arabic and Tamil. Before the Government implemented the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library, it was not possible for patent examiners across the world to access this knowledge and deny claims of novelty in a patent application based on traditional Indian systems of Medicine. With the TKDL initiative, language and format barriers have been overcome and information is now scientifically structured in five international languages with the help of the information technology and a unique classification called the Traditional Knowledge Resource Classification.  I take this opportunity to inform you about the progress made in addressing the problem of bio piracy and misappropriation related to traditional knowledge and the associated genetic resources through the TKDL. As you may be aware, India has signed the TKDL Access Agreement with EU, United States of America, UK and Germany. Since July 2009, we have identified 36 patent applications at EPO which concern Indian systems of Medicine in which third party evidence has been filed. In two cases, EPO set aside its intention to grant patents after receiving the TKDL evidence. In the other eleven cases including an application by an Indian company, applicants themselves decided to withdraw their four to five year old applications when they were confronted with TKDL evidence. It is estimated that the efforts have led to a sharp decline of almost 44% in the filing of patent applications involving Indian systems of medicine. This has been possible only through email and at no additional cost apart from the significant cost of setting up this facility.

 

While through the TKDL, India has created a defensive mechanism against misappropriation, we strongly believe that there is a need to do more. We need to provide positive rights to communities that are the real holders of traditional knowledge and where such knowledge has been widely documented or is no longer confined to a community, but have expanded to groups of communities or even peoples ;  rights must lie with a ‘national level authority’. Similarly, we need to take into account the diversity among countries that are storehouses of traditional knowledge. India has both codified and non codified systems of knowledge. The system of protection that is devised must recognize the tremendous range in traditional knowledge and provide protection to all.  

Given the diverse nature of traditional knowledge, IGC appears to be  the appropriate forum to address the issue of Traditional Knowledge, Genetic resources and Traditional Cultural Expression comprehensively and develop a legally binding treaty(ies). However, we need to take cognizance of the developments taking place in other international multilateral fora as well. My reference is to the steps being taken to address the issue of access and benefit sharing on Genetic Resources and associated Traditional Knowledge being discussed in the UN Convention for Biodiversity and the developments at the TRIPS Council. Ways should be found for all these bodies to act in concert in such an important issue as TK

 

We would like to express support for the proposal made by the Asian Group on the arrangement of the inter-sessions and the sequence of subjects to be taken up for discussion in these sessions. There has been more progress on the text on Traditional Cultural Expressions and that should be taken up for discussion first.

 

We are sure that sentiments that we must get down to discussing substantive issues is a sentiment that will find an echo among all member states.  I hope the committee, during its deliberations in the next couple of days’ gives clear mandate and carves out a definite area of work for the Inter-sessional working group. India also hopes that the spirit of adjustment and cooperation exhibited during the General Assembly continues and issues that the IGC is grappling with and about which all of us are concerned i.e., misappropriation  of existing knowledge, mandatory disclosure of source or origin, prior informed consent and access to knowledge and benefit sharing with owners of knowledge gets adequately addressed.

 

Thank you.

 

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