Anil K. Gupta
Regions of high biodiversity are often inhabited by the poorest people. The irony is that many of local healers and other herbal experts do not even charge for their services to the community. They conserve biological diversity despite remaining poor themselves. Their superior ethics cannot be a reason for our inferior ethics. The fact that the younger people are no more inclined to acquire and improve this knowledge further increases the risk of knowledge erosion. The contemporary innovations suffer even worse fate compared to traditional knowledge. In the absence of any institutions to recognize, respect and reward the grassroots creativity, the intellectual properties are exploited by national and multinational corporations inviting charge of biopiracy. The projected losses to third world on this account could be many times more than the suspected loss to developed countries due to copyright and IPR piracy in third world. A registry will prevent any firm or individual to seek patent on community knowledge as well as on knowledge and innovations produced by individuals without some kind of cross licensing. It will be possible to achieve the following results from such a registry: (i) acknowledgment of individual and collective creativity, (ii) grant entitlements to grassroots innovators for receiving a share of any returns that may arise from commercial applications of their knowledge, innovations or practices with or without value addition, (iii) linking the golden triangle of entrepreneurshipby linking investments, enterprise and innovations. Small scale investors in north and south cannot afford to go to various countries, scan diversity of knowledge and resources, negotiate contracts and invest up from huge investments for value addition, (iv) an autonomous authority of which local community representative will be the majority members could be entrusted with the responsibilities of having access to all the contracts, (v) each entry in the register will be coded according to an universal system like ISBN. The postal pin code of the habitat of the community or individuals registering innovations will be incorporated in the indexation system so that geo-referencing of innovations can be done, (vi) the entry in the register will in the first stage be mere acknowledgment of creativity and innovations at grassroots level. Essential purpose of this innovation also is to enable the potential investors (a cooperative of consumers, producers, an entrepreneur, or a large firm in private or public sector) to access the innovations and explore opportunities of joint ventures or licensing of innovations for research and commercialization. The transaction costs of both the investors and innovators will be reduced through the registry, (vii) the award of certificate will also increase entitlement of innovator/s for access to concessional credit and risk cover so that transition from collector, or producer of herbs to developer and marketer of value added products can take place in cases where innovators deem that fit, (viii) the registration system will also be part of knowledge Network linking problem solving people across the world at grassroots level. The patentees in the case of innovations like the ones based on neem trees should agree to share part of their profits with an International Innovations Support and Biodiversity Conservation Fund. The paper makes a case for adapting patent systems to not only accommodate the creative urges of local communities but also ensure that this vibrant and dynamic laboratory for developing sustainable technologies and products does not die down just because a community of IPR experts could not fathom its long term potential.
