InventoryofExistingOnlineDatabasesContaining-WIPO.docVIP

REQUEST FOR REFERENCES 1. There has been considerable concern in recent years that patents have been granted for certain inventions that did not meet the fundamental requirements of patentability when compared with the traditional knowledge from which the inventions had been derived. This traditional knowledge, had it been known to the patent examiners at the time of the examination, may have amounted to “prior art” and may have defeated any claim that the invention was either ‘novel’ or ‘inventive’ and therefore patentable. 2. For example, a patent on the use of turmeric for wound healing was revoked once the patented invention was compared with ancient Indian documents that demonstrated that the invention was neither novel nor inventive. 3. In response to numerous proposals that the status of traditional knowledge as prior art would be considerably enhanced if patent examiners had access to existing, documented traditional knowledge, the Secretariat of the World Intellectual Property Organization (“WIPO”), as part of its program of activities under the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore, is compiling two inventories which may be the basis of a useful resource to prevent the granting of patents on disclosed traditional knowledge: (a) An inventory of existing periodicals, journals or gazettes concerning traditional knowledge-related issues; and (b) An inventory of existing on-line traditional knowledge-related databases. 4. The inventories will only contain references to traditional knowledge-related publications and databases which are already in the public domain. Their objective is to help prevent the granting of patents on this knowledge. WIPO has not collected and does not wish to collect traditional knowledge itself. 5. The Secretariat of WIPO is seeking contributions to compile these inventories. Relevant categories of traditional knowledge could include: medicinal knowledge, in