India loses 2000 patents every year in US: Jairam Ramesh

HYDERABAD: India was losing at least 2000 patents every year in the United States and Europe on traditional formulations as 'our knowledge on these has never been documented,' Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh said here today.

Presiding over the UN-organised Convention on Biological Diversity, the Union Minister said Indians' knowledge on traditional formulations and systems of medicine mostly remained oral and never documented.

"This has been depriving us of the patent rights which is a direct impingement on Indian traditional formulations. It happened earlier in the case of turmeric, neem and Basmati rice, wherein we fought and won the patents," he recalled.

The Union Government has now made over two lakh formulations related to Indian systems of medicine available online through the 'Traditional Knowledge Digital Library,' he said.

The European Patents Office was given full access to this library in February while the US Patents Office too would be given similar access shortly, he said.

"We now expect patent granting to be sensitive to traditional knowledge," the minister remarked.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy released the fourth national report to the convention on Biological Diversity, brought out by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, on the occasion.