Faculty in the News
In the News
Legal roadbloacks to copyrighting natural remedies
Publication date: May 18, 2010
Source: KCUR 89.3 FM
Author: Alex Smith
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A story by KCUR 89.3 FM on legal roadblocks to copyrighting natural remedies featured an interview with Andrew Torrance, associate professor of law.
KCUR published:
Many in the health and pharmaceutical industries believe that the greatest possibilities for indigenous knowledge in mainstream society may come from natural healing remedies. Commonly used herbal remedies like aloe vera for burns, St. John's wort for depression and valerian root for insomnia are proven not just by clinical trials, but by thousands of years of traditional use.
As KU law professor Andrew Torrance explains, many traditional remedies have the potential to make a lot of money for whoever holds their patent. But just because an indigenous group has a history of using a plant as a remedy, they don't necessarily own the rights to it. In fact two of the requirements of a patent, novelty and non-obviousness, make it so any natural remedy that has a long history of use can't be patented by one person or a group. Andrew Torrance explains more.
Torrance: "Under the intellectual property system that the United States has, it's very difficult for anyone to claim intellectual property rights in something that's been out there for a long time and has not been claimed yet. However, if an Indian tribe were to do the kind of research that a pharmaceutical company or a professor of pharmacy might do and find a new formulation or a new use, they could apply just as anybody else could for, for example, a patent. But if it's information that is out there, known by the tribe, or maybe even known by people outside the tribe, it's going to be very difficult to satisfy the requirements of patentability, such as novelty and non-obviousness."