Impact of Indian Patent law on traditional knowledge

The law of patent in India prescribes three essential conditions i.e. novelty, non obviousness and usefulness for patentability of an invention. The Patent law of India has been criticized as it is considered to have helped in the misappropriation of traditional knowledge of India. The essential requirements for getting an invention patented under Indian Law are being used for piracy of traditional knowledge. The present paper is an attempt to analyse the essentials of patent law and why traditional knowledge could not be patented and also what efforts are being made to protect and preserve the traditional knowledge of India.