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Traditional knowledge

Indigenous peoples often have knowledge about the use of natural resources (usually plants) for medicinal purposes. This traditional knowledge may also be of value in contemporary pharmaceutical research.

There have been concerns that companies are using traditional knowledge for commercial ends without agreement from the original holders and without sharing any benefits derived from using the knowledge. An example is the patenting of drugs developed with the help of traditional knowledge.

The World Intellectual Property Organisation is looking at ways to improve legal protection of traditional knowledge and to ensure that any benefits derived from its use are shared by the people that developed it. This could lead to guidelines or an amendment to the TRIPs agreement.

Traditional knowledge (in whatever form, anywhere in the world) is currently recognised as "prior art" in the EU and Japan and is therefore considered by Patent Offices when determining the novelty and inventiveness of an application. Under US law, however, something known outside the US but not formally recorded (ie traditional knowledge handed down orally from generation to generation) is not considered "prior art" and will not therefore be taken into account in assessing novelty and inventiveness.

Today most of our pharmaceutical research is based on screening of large numbers of synthetic chemical compounds, rather than natural resources that might be derived from traditional knowledge. But in the event that we do develop a commercial product using traditional knowledge we will ensure a clear benefit is returned to the country of origin, for example through royalties or a share of net profits.

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