None too neem-ble

Ah, the satisfying aftertaste of reclamation. Thanks to the pretty basic wisdom that prevailed at the European Patent Office, biopirates have been obstructed in their attempt to patent neem oil. Accordingly, a patent granted to the US Department of Agriculture and chemical giant W.R. Grace in 1995 for a process to extract oil from the neem plant for its use as a plant pesticide has been withdrawn. So the independence of the azad darakht-e-Hind, as the neem tree has been referred to over the ages, has been maintained. It may be a victory for India, as is being claimed, but it8217;s been a pretty long-drawn-out and hard-fought success. And remember, this was not a one-shot face-off with the spectre of biopiracy, or biocolonialism as it is alternatively called. According to one estimate, over a hundred patents have been registered with the US Patent Office for processes involving Indian plants.

Protecting traditional systems of medicine, as too India8217;s endemic biodiversity wealth, from the flurry of patent applications being filed entails treading this long, winding path from the starting block each and every time. If day before it was a patent on a turmeric application 8212; which was successfully overturned by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research 8212; and if yesterday it was the neem pesticide, today there still remains a plethora of patents to be meticulously contested. There is the basmati patent to an American company, there is the patent on karela, the list goes on and on. While the concerned Indian institutions have no option but to lodge official protests against each infringement on the country8217;s traditional knowledge base, this response-based approach is surely not a sustainable mechanism. It is a pity that pious promises to speed up the documentation of traditional knowledge are made only when yet another biopirate announces his or her presence at the US Patent Office. In the newworld order this delay is baffling.

Contrary to popular perception, patents cannot be granted for vegetables and plants as such, only for certain extracts or formulations which the patent aspirant claims are novel. To have such a patent revoked involves establishing that knowledge of such an application had already existed in the public domain. For instance, to have a turmeric patent revoked, translations form old Sanskrit, Urdu and Persian texts had to be recited to establish prior knowledge of the application sought to be patented.

Documentation would not only make redundant this scouring of fraying parchments, it would also help locals exploit their own heritage. With New Age movements becoming an integral part of popular culture, a whole global market is up for grabs. Systematic documentation of indigenous remedies referred to in old texts or in old wives8217; tales would provide a treasure trove of alternative medicinal or cosmetic processes. So the next time a biopirate attempts to appropriate rights to a self-stated novel way to slay an enemy with the common neem and the sacred tulsi, bio-protectors should have easy access to this prescription on an old parchment: quot;Apply a paste of tulsi and neem on your face at a particular time on a full moon night.quot;