(a) whether foreign companies are reaping benefits from our traditional knowledge
due to the loopholes in Indian Intellectual Property Rights Legislations;
(b) is so, whether the Government proposes to amend the law in this regard; and
(c) if so, the details thereof ?
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (SHRI ASHWANI KUMAR)
(a)to(c) : The Patents Act, 1970, as amended in 2005, provides vide Section 3(p) that
an invention which in effect, is traditional knowledge or which is an aggregation or
duplication of known properties of traditionally known component or components is
not patentable.
Section 10 of the Patents Act, 1970, inter alia, provides for disclosure of the source
and geographical origin of the biological material in the specification, when used in
an invention.
Further, the Act also provides for opposition to the grant of patent on the ground
that the invention so far as claimed in any claim of the complete specification is
anticipated having regard to the knowledge, oral or otherwise, available within any
local or indigenous community in India or elsewhere and for revocation of a granted
patent.
In view of the above, there is no proposal presently under consideration of the
Government to amend the Patents Act.