The country’s patent office has refused to entertain a claim by the Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine (CCRUM), an autonomous research body under the ministry of Ayush, for a patent on a process for the preparation of a herbal drug composition to treat constipation.
Refusing the patent application by CCRUM, the patent and design office in Delhi said the ‘so- called’ invention of a composition was mere use of traditionally known herbs such as Piper nigrum, Hyoscyamus niger and Aloe vera, extracted with purified water.
The patent office pointed out that the composition, thus made by mixing of extract as well as standardisation of the method of extract-making constitute nothing novel and hence was not allowable under Section 3(d) and 3(p) of The Patents Act, 1970.
“It does not constitute an invention under Section 2(1)(ja) of The Patents Act, 1970 as its is obvious to a person skilled in art to make the already admittedly known composition by extracting traditionally known herbs,” Monika Yadav, assistant controller of patents & designs, New Delhi, said.
The assistant controller ruled that claims have been lacking in novelty and inventive step and the claimed invention was not patentable. The proposed ‘invention’ was mere use of traditionally known herbs- extracted and made composition with known preservatives.
The patent agent for CCRUM, however, submitted that though the herbs are known, the method of standardisation as per scientific parameters and process was not known. The agent further submitted that though the products are the same, the preparation was different.
Systematic research in Indian systems of medicine under the government patronage initiated with the establishment of Central Council for Research in Indian Medicine and Homoeopathy (CCRIMH) as an autonomous organisation of the ministry of health and family welfare in 1969.
