Kerala Intellectual Property Rights Policy

Kerala introduced the Intellectual Property Rights Policy mainly to prevent misappropriation of traditional knowledge such as Ayurveda, the ancient Indian system of medicine, and knowledge associated with bio-diversity. After becoming the first in the country to introduce a state-level policy on intellectual property rights (IPR), the Kerala government introduce IPR as a compulsory subject in schools and universities.

Kerala had in the past lost several of its traditional knowledge rights on healthcare, food and food supplements, as well as on designs and cultural properties, because the original inventors or communities that inherited the knowledge over generations were not supported by the government. Losing the trademark rights on Jeevani tea and nutritional supplements to the US-based NutriScience Inc. is a recent example. Jeevani, a health drink with high medicinal value, was developed by the state-owned Tropical Botanical Garden and Research Institute (TBGRI), based on traditional knowledge inherited by tribals in Agastya hills on the Western Ghats.