The Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) is a collaborative project between the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Department of AYUSH, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, of India, and is being implemented at CSIR.  An inter-disciplinary team of Traditional Medicine (Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Yoga) experts, patent examiners, IT experts, scientists and technical officers were involved in the creation of TKDL for Indian Systems of Medicine.  The TKDL project involves documentation of the traditional knowledge available in public domain in the form of existing literature related to Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Yoga, in digitized format in five international languages which are English, German, French, Japanese and Spanish.  The TKDL provides information on traditional knowledge existing in the country, in languages and format understandable by patent examiners at International Patent Offices (IPOs), so as to prevent the grant of wrong patents.

The TKDL has a dual objective.  In the first place, it seeks to prevent the granting of patents over products developed utilizing traditional knowledge where there has been little, if any, inventive step.  Second, it seeks to act as a bridge between modern science and traditional knowledge, and can be used for catalyzing advanced research based on information on traditional knowledge for developing novel drugs.  The TKDL is intended to act as a bridge between ancient Sanskrit Slokas and a patent examiner at a global level, since the database will provide information on modern as well as local names in a language and format understandable to patent examiners.  It is expected that the gap on lack of prior art knowledge be minimized.  The database will have sufficient details on definitions, principles, and concepts to minimize the possibility of patenting “inventions” for minor/insignificant modifications.