Traditional knowledge and IP

1
Traditional knowledge and IP

• Group 5
• Anjana Barua
• D.N.Jana
• Amir Ullah Khan
• Ranjit Kumar
• R.Kalpana Sastry

2
Indigenous knowledge

• History shows that skills and knowledge base of
  societies encompasses all fields
• Patronage of art/culture in ancient times
• India with a rich heritage
• Has been a repository of knowledge wealth
• Now how do we preserve and gain competitive
  advantage?

3
Preserve and gain competitive advantage

• Issues in protection
• Individual Vs Community rights
• Time bound monopolies
• Prime goal of IPR public domain
• Historical wrongs
• The tribe that dances never dies

4
The players in the game

• Concerned individuals
• Traditional societies
• Fashion designers, entertainers, drug firms, bio
  tech companies
• Sociologists, Anthropologists, Historians
• Future generations

5
What do we have

• we have, on the one hand, traditional innovation
  systems with a definite set of values and, more
  importantly, societal roles promoting that
  innovation
• we have a bureaucracy that makes a rule and a
  form out of everything
• we have corporate interests

6
Case Study-

• Kalamkari-
• the technique of painting cloth with a pointed
  bamboo kalam or pen,
• Kalamkari is almost an industry in Andhra
  Pradesh.,
• However, most of the Kalamkari work one sees
  today is a mix of printed and pen work
• and is generally aimed at the home furnishing
  market.

7
Art since 16th century

• Ethnic, colorful and eye catching Kalamkaris play
  an important part in folk life and rituals.
• This art, which has its origin in Andhra
  Pradesh, has been passed on from father to son
  down the generations.
• Kalamkari works represent Hindu mythology and
  its symbolism or Mughal scenes.
• Appreciated in Europe since 16th century, these
  are used as wall hangings

8
Srikalahasti school

• Kalamkaris are used in clothes, cushion covers,
  bedspreads, etc. 
• Hand painted cloths of Sri Kalahasti, Andhra
  Pradesh, works of art drawn entirely by hand,
  were originally created predominantly for the
  temples as narrative murals.These murals tell the
  stories of the great Hindu epics in picture form

9
Masulipatnam school

• Masulipatnam designs are Iranian in character
  with intricate and delicate forms. The old
  traditional block prints were largely used with
  Persian motifs like trees, creepers, flowers and
  leaf designs. Later came the Dutch influence when
  there was an increase in demand from Europe. This
  style of Kalamkari was mainly done on bed covers,
  curtains and also garments, as it was a popular
  demand from the west. In the nineteenth century,
  block prints reached its peak and even today it
  is largely produced for Indians and foreigners

10
Masalipatnam school

•  The Masalipatnam kalamkari uses wood blocks to
  print designs. However  the use of vegetable dyes
  and mordants make it still a time consuming
  process  .

11
Process

• The process involves treating of cotton fabric
  with buffalo dung. Then myrobalan,a tanin
  containing pod is pounded and soaked to produce a
  liquid This is combined with milk and used to
  soak the fabric.
• The myrobalan acts as a mordant binding the dye
  to the cloth and the milk keeps the drawn line
  from running. The initial drawing is done with a
  rust iron solution, created by soaking rusty
  metal with molassas, water, and bran for 14 days.
  
• After drying for one day, the cloth is boiled
  with madder, vegetable dye. The red only
  penetrated the areas treated with alum. Many more
  processes are used for the remaining colours. 

12
IPR portfolio?

• GI?
• Designs
• Process patent?
• Product patent on wide use of dyes as herbals and
  other value additions
• Protection of motifs
• Trademarks

13
People speak

• The knowledge people possess regarding vegetable
  dyes was the individual property of the artisan
  group. We should give them back that knowledge."
  says L. Kannan of PPST.
• The wheel has turned full circle and people are
  going back to vegetable dyes. Since there is a
  danger of industrial houses overshadowing the
  artisan leading to his marginalisation, one's
  work should be oriented towards bringing him back
  into the picture. "We need to tread cautiously,
  for attempts to encourage the craft could be
  counter-productive. Several corporate companies
  are trying to make powder extracts to make the
  process easy. It will have an adverse impact on
  our ecology if certain dyes are produced in bulk
  as roots, barks and flowers have various uses in
  medicine and other fields."
• Kanan, Local artisan from Srikalahasti,The Hindu
  Frontier magazine,June1999

14
Solution from artisans

• The ideal solution is for promotion to be linked
  in a sustainable way with the community of
  artisans and ecology. Smaller scales of
  production using a wide variety of natural
  resources would be the answer, says Kannan.

15
What do we do?

• Building awareness
• Databases for archival value for
  libraries/research
• Teaching cultural knowledge in universities
• Using virtual net
• Lease enabling organizations to overcome over
  exploitations

16
Sustainable answers

• Conservation techniques for resources
• Policy for collection-BDA etc.,.
• Train locals in sustainable use
• Value addition
• IPR policy
• Benefit sharing-community,cooperatives,state
• Respecting the ethical considerations
• Quality consciousness,rel. sentiments,generation
  art
• Self Practicing ethics and value in true sense