INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - APRIL 2007
The Month that was ...

GOVT TO GIVE PATENT PROTECTION TO FOLK CULTURE

AFTER starting a dialogue with patent offices in the US, Japan and Europe for protecting India's centuries-old knowledge in medicine, the government has now turned its attention to protecting elements of folk culture that has immense commercial value.

The ministry of culture and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is planning to create a digital database of intangible cultural heritage such as songs, instrumental music, architectural concepts, martial arts, legends, paintings and pottery as the first step towards protecting them from misappropriation.

This electronic inventory would constitute evidence of what is already known and practiced (called prior art) which could be used to challenge misappropriation in any segment from branded jewellery and designer cloths to legend-based movies.

Late last month, during a UNESCO conference held in New Delhi, representatives from Canada, Brazil, UK, Switzerland and Japan studied the digital database India has prepared on traditional medicine--the only one so far of its kind. For documenting cultural expressions, this model is likely to be adopted by other countries. "For a globally binding legal framework on protecting cultural heritage, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has sought comments from all member nations on ten issues. Their response would form the basis of an eventual international framework", said V K Gupta, head of IT division, CSIR and the man behind the database on traditional medicine.

The proposed database on cultural expressions would be useful when the global framework for benefit sharing with the community that has been practicing the art becomes a reality. According to experts, intangible cultural heritage has been generously adopted by popular western as well as Indian fashion designers in their creations. Lucknow's famous chinkari embroidery that prominently figure in some Indian designers' work and Chinese pottery designs used generously by ceramics companies are examples of misappropriation, where the original practitioners do not get any benefit.

Since the commercial value is quite high and developing nations have significantly higher cultural wealth, rich countries are not quite eager to disallow the commercial exploitation of such wealth in their countries.

There are a couple of issues where protection of cultural expressions contradicts with the patent protection of an invention. Patents are granted to useful new inventions, while cultural expressions and traditional knowledge are known to mankind for centuries. While new inventions and creative works may be inspired by existing knowledge and other cultural and biological resources, the frameworks for protecting these diverse aspects need to have a smooth interface.