THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State Government has taken steps to form the Kerala Traditional Knowledge Authority (KTKA), which is meant to protect traditional knowledge, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has said.In a written reply to the Assembly the other day, he said that the Law Secretary had been asked to give final form to KTKA after discussions with State Biodiversity Board chairman R V Varma and the IPR chair of the Cochin University of Science and Technology, Dr N S Gopalakrishnan.The Law Secretary has also been asked to see whether rules based on the IPR policy can be framed under section 63 of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002. The state IPR policy had come into being through a government order issued on June 3, 2008. The proposed KTKA would function under the Supervisory Council on Intellectual Property (SCIP) chaired by the Chief Minister. At present, IPR activities in the state are divided among different agencies. Efforts are also on to bring them under the SCIP umbrella, the Chief Minister said. KTKA will take efforts to protect traditional knowledge, especially those of the tribal communities, prevent exploitation of such knowledge by vested interests, explore the possibility of legislation to protect such knowledge and enable registration of such knowledge among other things.
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