In the 1990s, a slew of patents were being filed claiming to have discovered what was considered to be ancient knowledge. One man in India, however, made it his life’s mission to fight such bogus claims.
In 1995, the US Patent and Trademark Office granted US patent number 5401540 to Indian American scientists Dr. Suman K. and Harihar Kohli. The patent claims covered the wound-healing properties and the oral and topical use of turmeric powder.
The scientists in the patent claimed that turmeric, which is developed from the underground stem of the turmeric plant (Curcuma longa), had been shown to provide relief from pain and was even found to heal ulcers.
As the news of the patent reached worldwide, it created a ripple, especially in India, where turmeric has been used as a healing agent for generations and where this knowledge has been preserved since time immemorial.
When Dr. Raghunath Mashelkar saw this in the newspapers, he was left astounded by the audacity of the claim. Dr. Mashelkar, who had completed his PhD from the Institute of Chemical Technology, had just become the director of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.
Founded in 1942, the CSIR is an autonomous body that was tasked with spearheading scientific research and development in India. Today, CSIR is one of the largest publicly funded R&D organizations in the world.
After checking the patent and gathering evidence against it, in 1996 a re-examination claim was filed with the USPTO for the invalidation of patent number 5401540. CSIR claimed that the patent lacked novelty, as the healing properties of turmeric were not something new.
They dug out research papers in various local languages such as Sanskrit, Hindi, and Urdu, and even a paper from 1953 by the Indian Medical Association, substantiating the claim. They enlisted a law firm out of Minneapolis to fight on their behalf.
The scientists at the University of Mississippi fired back, stating that their way of using it was slightly different. The USPTO, however, was having none of it, and so in 1997 all claims were rejected, and the patent was declared invalid.
Mashelkar and the CSIR had won a major battle, but what he realised soon after was that it was only getting started. Another patent emerged on basmati rice when a company in Texas had patented a new way of breeding it.
It was a common practice, and Mashelkar and his team soon found out that more than 200 such patents existed in the USA and in Europe, claiming new discoveries of old traditional techniques that were known for centuries. They called it biopiracy.
To fight the menace, Mashelkar, with the help of a botanist called Tapan K. Mukherjee, then started building a library to gather ancient knowledge and store it in a readable format. Mashelkar claims that the library has helped in revoking almost 300 patents.
Mashelkar has campaigned for collaboration between academics, researchers, and corporate companies in order to strengthen the IPR ecosystem. When they successfully challenged the patent for Basmati rice, it opened up a new category for classifying patents.
Some, however, don’t share Mashelkar’s views on patents and are skeptical about the numbers. They have even said that the digital library has been a huge waste of public money. Whatever the case, the Patent wars are sure to continue in weird claims and quiet courtrooms.
Sources:
“How One Man Fought a Patent War over Turmeric,” transcript of Planet Money, NPR, September 1, 2023. npr.org/transcripts/11
Bhowmick, Anusree, Smaranika Deb Roy, and Mitu De. “A Brief Review on the Turmeric Patent Case with Its Implications on the Documentation of Traditional Knowledge.” Review Article, Department of Botany, Gurudas College, Kolkata 700054. N.d. ndcebios.in/v1n1/202101011
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