Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) is a pioneering initiative of India to protect Indian traditional medicinal knowledge and prevent its misappropriation at International Patent Offices. Traditional Knowledge (TK) is a valuable yet vulnerable asset to indigenous and local communities who depend on TK for their livelihood. The healthcare needs of more than 70% population and livelihood of millions of people in India is dependent on traditional medicine. Globally too there has been renewed attention and interest in the use of traditional medicine increasing its vulnerability to exploitation. The grant of a US patent to wound healing properties of turmeric flags the danger of complacence in proactively guarding the traditional knowledge. The time, effort and money spent on revocation of turmeric patent at USPTO highlighted the need for putting in place a proactive mechanism for TK protection. The problem related to Indian TK is further compounded by the fact that India’s traditional medicinal knowledge exists in languages such as Sanskrit, Hindi, Arabic, Urdu, Tamil etc. that too in ancient local dialects that are no more in practice. Thus, the published Indian TK literature is neither accessible nor understood by patent examiners at international patent offices.
Traditional Knowledge Digital Library has overcome the language and format barrier by systematically and scientifically converting and structuring the available contents of the ancient texts on Indian Systems of Medicines i.e. Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Sowa Rigpa as well as Yoga, into five international languages, namely, English, Japanese, French, German and Spanish, with the help of information technology tools and an innovative classification system - Traditional Knowledge Resource Classification (TKRC). As on date, more than 4.24 lakh formulations/ practices have been transcribed into the TKDL database.
