How to protect the inventions of the poor - SciDev.Net

How to protect the inventions of the poor - SciDev.Net

How to protect the inventions of the poor

Anil Gupta

2 May 2012 | EN | ES | FR | 中文

Innovators need assurance that their knowledge rights will be protected

SRISTI, Ahmedabad

New models of intellectual property rights are needed to protect — and promote — local knowledge and innovations, says Anil Gupta.

Knowledge and innovations created by people in developing nations need to be protected byintellectual property (IP) rights — not so much to prevent others from learning and building on their ideas, but to ensure that they are not short-changed. IP rights also protect those who commercialise these innovations from unfair competition.

Inventions protected by patents, a main conventional form of IP rights, can withstand the scrutiny of 'global prior art' — that is, they have novel features beyond previously known practices or technologies. India's National Innovation Foundation (NIF) has filed in the United States and in India more than 500 patents on behalf of knowledge-rich, economically poor people.

But we should go beyond conventional models of IP rights to give innovators a true stake in their inventions. That's because never before in human history has more knowledge been eroded from communities than in the current generation — and we seem to be mute spectators.

For the common good

One way that innovators can protect their work is through the concept of 'technology commons', which evolved during the doctoral work of my colleague Riya Sinha. It implies that copying and adapting innovations is allowed between people ('horizontal learning'), but not from people to companies, except through licensing.

For example, in the case of a multi-purpose ploughing machine operated with a mobyke (motorcycle), several mechanics copied the design and some improved it. These improvements and the original innovation could then be put in a technology commons bundle.

Under this arrangement, no one person can license it to a third party without consulting others, particularly the lead innovator. The entitlements of the lead innovator and imitators or beneficiaries need not be equal.

But the concept needs fine-tuning. For example, some of the recent improvements don't use a mobyke at all (they use a chassis — an iron frame with a different gearbox and four wheels), and so cannot be considered derivatives of the original innovation. The question is where to draw the line when such complications emerge.

Investing in domestic innovation

Generally, countries endeavour to strengthen domestic industry by acquiring technology from abroad through a technology acquisition fund. But there has been little discussion of how it could be used to incentivise domestic innovators.

How could it work? The idea is to acquire the rights of technologies whose potential may not have been exploited fully in the hands of the innovator. The government or public institutions can then make these innovations open source, or license them to small entrepreneurs for free or at low cost. 

NIF is now managing a fund in this way, with help from India's Department of Science and Technology, allowing innovators to use their creation as they wish but also allowing NIF to disseminate it.

Grassroots innovators should not be expected to subsidise the cost of societal learning; the state or market should bear that cost.

Extending IP protection

Protecting IP rights is important, but we should go further. Institutional science and technology (S&T) expertise needs to be combined with local knowledge and innovations to create value-added products.

When scientists acknowledge that, for example, a crop developed by a farmer is better than the variety released by a university, it raises the self-esteem of a local innovator. This was the case for Balwan Singh, from Haryana state in India, who distributed seed from his improved onion variety to thousands of other farmers in his area. [1]

The variety is in the process of being registered with the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Authority, along with 20 other varieties, which NIF can access for wider dissemination.

But without the assurance of some protection, at least over the short-term, there is no incentive for thousands of communities, traditional knowledgeholders and grassroots innovators to disclose their knowledge.

We need a registration system that extends IP to potential entrepreneurs and investors at a low cost. [2] Under this system, innovations would get automatic IP protections once disclosed by the innovators, and if their value was non-negligible. Local knowledge would become part of our global heritage after the protection time period is over.

And if commercialised after that, the money would be channelled to an international fund for incentivising conservation and disseminating creativity at the grassroots level in local languages.

Licensing to other nations

To promote faster technological change at a larger scale, we need a different global fund to create a pool of IP-protected innovations that can be licensed to developing countries at no cost or low cost.

India's NIF and the Honey Bee Network offered such a pool to S&T ministers of developing countries at an international meeting held in New Delhi in March 2012. Low-cost, non-exclusive licences to IP-protected technologies were offered to African countries, starting with Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

We also need to explore longer-term licensable rights in traditional knowledge — treating it as a 'prior art' disenfranchises communities and nullifies their research and development (R&D) efforts over generations.

The asymmetry in securing rights on knowledge between the formal and informal sector has to be overcome sooner than later. Otherwise, we risk communities losing faith in the fairness of formal institutions.

Anil Gupta is founder of the Honey Bee Network and a professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He can be contacted atanilg@iimahd.ernet.in or anilgb@gmail.com.

This article is part of a Spotlight on Supporting grassroots innovation.

REFERENCES

[1] National Innovation Foundation Awards. Balwan Singh profile
[2] Gupta, A. K. WIPO-UNEP study on the role of intellectual property rights in the sharing of benefits arising from the use of biological resources and associated traditional knowledge  [1.60MB] (WIPO-UNEP, 2000)

eating pakodas sans oil: challenging young tech minds

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An open letter to emperor Ashoka

anil k gupta personal blog
An open letter to emperor Ashoka

Respected Emperor Ashoka

You were the pioneer king who despite being very cruel earlier had a change of heart and became one of the most benign, considerate and just king in Indian History. One of the your earliest edicts was discovered at girnar in Gujarat which had an advice: “Everywhere within Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi's domain, and among the people beyond the borders, the Cholas, the Pandyas, the Satiyaputras, the Keralaputras, as far as Tamraparni and where the Greek king Antiochos rules, and among the kings who are neighbors of Antiochos, everywhere has Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, made provision for two types of medical treatment: medical treatment for humans and medical treatment for animals. Wherever medical herbs suitable for humans or animals are not available, I have had them imported and grown. Wherever medical roots or fruits are not available I have had them imported and grown. Along roads I have had wells dug and trees planted for the benefit of humans and animals”.
And as if this was not enough, you added, “Along roads I have had banyan trees planted so that they can give shade to animals and men, and I have had mango groves planted. At intervals of eight //krosas//, I have had wells dug, rest-houses built, and in various places, I have had watering-places made for the use of animals and men. But these are but minor achievements. Such things to make the people happy have been done by former kings. I have done these things for this purpose, that the people might practice the Dhamma”.
I hear so much about dharma of different kind but edicts enunciated in 256 BC still remain a point of standard reference for inclusive development.
In the last few weeks lot of wonderful green lush avenue trees have been whispering in the ear of cool breeze that they are no more sure of being left alive. You had in fact suggested that even if you were taking food, any news about conflicts or injustice to human or nature, actual or perceived should be brought to your immediate notice. But news of this kind does not travel very far now days.
You will be glad to know that local communities are not against the development process, they don’t mind the widening of the road if that is most essential. But should the road be widened on both the sides, is an innocent question they ask? They have an alternative plan by which a slide turn and expansion on one side can keep the avenue intact. In some other places, whole trees need to b uprooted and replanted. India has the capability but if needed. A Major Buddhist country can come to our rescue. China has developed planting grown up trees on avenues into a simple art.

What do we do, Lord Ashoka? Who do we appeal to? Planting the trees, conserving life, watering points and care centres for human and animal were part of the world’s first sort of civic charter. But the rulers no more seek ideas from common people, else by now some solution could easily be found to have development and conservation of nature. If assume that traffic moves slowly for a few miles, will not people bless the rulers for letting them look out of window to see beautiful trees, birds, and places to relax under the shade. Why so much rush, for what, for whom? In any case, the traffic in the cities is becoming slower every day? Assume that some rare minerals are found under the bungalow of governor or chief minister, will we just remove all the nearby settlements for excavating those minerals? Will ashram road be uprooted if oil is found underneath? May be, ask yourself, trees, far away, on the road side, does any one care now, how did you manage to persuade the rulers of smaller kingdoms?
I don’t mind if negotiations are held with people living on the roadside so that they are persuaded to sell part of their land for expansion of the road, if that is must and has no alternative, without cutting trees. You will not be able to see the situation of your edicts today. Pl forgive us, Ashoka, for we could not prove worthy of your legacy, in perpetual apology ……….