Traditional Knowledge Digital Library TKDL

The concept of applying intellectual property rights to traditional knowledge has been getting more publicity in recent years. With international disagreements about the patenting of “traditional knowledge,” like Yoga, there are legitimate concerns presented by this concept. India’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) created a Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) as a resource for documenting traditional knowledge, like the traditionally known medicinal properties of plants. Representatives from 35 countries attended the conference to discover the Library’s successes, and understand how to apply a similar system to their own country. The TKDL is an effort to provide patent offices with resources to understand India’s traditional knowledge. Indeed, having as much information as possible at one’s fingertips is essential to drafting, examining, and understanding patent applications/patents. The information in the Library is intended to act as a “bridge” between the ancient Sanskrit information, and patent examiners at international offices—a bold goal. So far, EPO, Indian, German, UK, US, Canadian, and Australian examiners have access to the information stored in the library. The intention is to allow these examiners to better understand the historical knowledge and to prevent complex and expensive opposition procedures. The Indian government estimates (in their press release) that the cost of opposing a granted patent at the international level can cost between $200,000 and $600,000. The TKDL contains around 226,000 medical formulations; opposition proceedings for all of these formulations would be prohibitively expensive. ...................understand more