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Kerala is first in India to
introduce a
state-level policy on intellectual property rights (IPR). Now, the
state government is introducing IPR as a compulsory subject in
schools and universities.
Universities have been
directed to
include IPR law and implementation in the syllabus at the degree
level from the next academic year. This is to encourage students to
take up a career in patents and their protection.
“The state will initially
start five
or six centres of excellence to provide degree-level classes to
students in all five universities, and faculty will be provided in
the universities and its affiliated institutions over a period of
time,” a senior state education ministry official said.
Kerala introduced the IPR
policy this
year mainly to prevent misappropriation of traditional knowledge such
as Ayurveda, the ancient Indian system of medicine, and knowledge
associated with biodiversity.
Kerala law minister M.
Vijayakumar said
in June the IPR policy was the first step towards making the state
“IP savvy”. The state plans to form a body under the law
department called “Mission IPR” to oversee patent rights
administration.
“Unlike other knowledge
categories,
which are mostly deciphered in books or embedded in the biological
system, this kind of knowledge attributes to and forms the basis of
livelihoods of many traditional knowledge practitioners, and hence
the absence of any legal property rights on such knowledge may render
an opportunity for the private appropriation of the traditional
knowledge by corporates,” the policy document said.
Kerala had in the past lost
several of
its traditional knowledge rights on healthcare, food and food
supplements, and on designs and cultural properties, because the
original inventors or communities that inherited the knowledge over
generations were not supported by the government. Losing the
trademark rights on Jeevani tea and nutritional supplements to the
US-based NutriScience Inc. is a recent example. (Source: Live Mint)
August 27, 2008
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