COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES

Ayurvedic experts object to inclusion in patent act

The centuries-old Indian monopoly in Ayurveda is being questioned with mounting American pressure to include it in the ambit of the Indian Patent Act, according to the Ayurveda Protection Council, formed by practitioners of Ayurveda and manufacturers of Ayurvedic products in Kerala.

The Indian Patent Act, was passed by Parliament in December, 1998. A later ordinance, incorporating amendments to the act, had excluded Ayurveda from its ambit. However, the US went to the World Trade Organisation, which issued India an ultimatum to include Ayurveda under the purview of the act before April 19.

The council alleged that India had succumbed to US pressure and agreed to enter into a dialogue with American officials in Geneva.

In this context, the council has planned a series of agitations. These include a march to the Raj Bhavan on March 12 by practitioners of Ayurveda and manufacturers of Ayurvedic products.

The council urged the Union government to hold discussions with experts in the field before amending the act. They further demanded that the Kerala government take an initiative to declare all Ayurvedic plants as the "intellectual properties" of the state, which had been the cradle of Ayurveda.

The Centre should declare plants referred to in Ayurvedic treatises as "national property" before those from foreign countries snatch them away, said Dr Jyothi Lal, the general convenor of the council.

The council also plans to observe World Health Day on April 7 as the "Ayurveda Protection Day". It also plans to take help from related bodies and institutions, said organising committee convener Dr Radhakrishnan.

With the inclusion of Ayurveda in the act, small and big manufacturers in the sector would face a severe crisis with hundreds of thousands of employees in the field rendering jobless. The government should call for a debate on the issue and if the consensus was that the Geneva talks would prove harmful to the interests of the country, we should abstain from it, they demanded.

Agreeing to American demand to bring in product patents instead of process patents would make India lose its right to almost all Ayurveda combinations to foreign players. The foreign groups would claim that the Indian combinations had some elements from products they had patented, the Ayurvedic experts said.

They said demand for exclusive rights by foreign firms would raise prices of Ayurvedic preparations beyond the buying capacity of the common man.

The US also demanded that the term for existing patents be raised from seven to 20 years, that a mailbox be opened for patent applications, that the Plant Variety Protection bill should give rights to the scientists. Currently only farmers these rights under the Plant Variety Protection and Farmers Right Act.

Business news