Law And Policy On Intellectual Property Traditional Knowledge And Development

This book offers an original account of how contemporary intellectual property rights regimes could be adapted to suit traditional knowledge. It examines the ways in which international developments to protect collectively held knowledge typically associated with Indigenous Peoples could de developed to protect cultural signifiers which lies outside the scope of intellectual property protection. The book considers case studies such as the steel pan of Trinidad and Tobago, punta rock music from Belize, Brazilian capoeira, and the cajón, a musical instrument, of Peru, and sets out how rights proposed for these cultural signifiers might be implemented both internationally and domestically.

This Brief explores the issues concerning customary law, traditional knowledge and intellectual property.

In the wake of its emergence on the international scene, the world's major international intellectual property tool - the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) - has evoked anger and dismay among indigenous people and local communities, mainly in the developing countries. Beyond the burden of setting up institutions that they previously did not have, the TRIPS expects developing countries to devote their meagre resources to the revision and introduction of legislation that provides for criminal sanctions against violations of intellectual property rights, the administration of such legislation and the enforcement of border measures. The fact that most of these countries are importers of most of the intellectual property-bound products in question has resulted in high outflows of foreign currency - adding to the pressures related to the costs of compliance and making it difficult for them to satisfy the health needs of their citizens, provide educational materials and cope with the soaring price of agricultural inputs. Despite the onerous requirements, the TRIPS Agreement does not address the concerns of the majority of the countries that are obligated to comply with it. The manner in which traditional knowledge (TK) is treated in the agreement demonstrates how the global intellectual property (IP) regime addresses the concerns of developing countries and the interests of their component indigenous peoples and local communities. The TRIPS requires WTO members to protect TK to the extent that such knowledge fits within the forms of intellectual property protection that the agreement recognizes. The problem is that these forms of intellectual property protection tools - while they have proved instrumental to owners of technological and biotechnological knowledge and skill - do not fit well with TK and, thus, have only facilitated its misappropriation and abuse. As a result, efforts to find modes of protecting traditional knowledge have surfaced in various forums of international and national law-making, as well as in the works of public-interest groups and academicians. These efforts stem from divers philosophical roots, and thus the approaches adopted and the methods proposed take varied forms. As such, the extent and mode of protection they offer as well as their effectiveness are varied. With the increasing awareness that rendering the knowledge bearer attentive to the value of his/her knowledge will encourage the holders to appreciate TK as “continuous and additive innovation” and thus a resource that further develops their culture, geographical indications (GIs) are touted as having the potential to offer advantages to developing-country agricultural producers. This article discusses the use of geographical indications in the protection of traditional knowledge-based agricultural products in the international intellectual property framework, and assesses the challenges and prospects of geographical indications to efforts to cater to the needs of indigenous people and local communities.

Discusses the suitability of mainstream forms of intellectual propety rights to indigenous knowledge and efforts to reconcile the Western concept of intellectual property with indigenous knowledge.

This is one of a series of Booklets dealing with intellectual property and genetic resources, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions/folklore.

General information on the interface between intellectual property (IP) and traditional knowledge (TK), traditional cultural expressions (TCEs), and genetic resources (GRs). It briefly addresses the most important questions that arise when considering the role that IP principles and systems can play in protecting TK and TCEs from misappropriation, and in generating and equitably sharing benefits from their commercialization, and the role of IP in access to and benefit sharing in GRs.

This Brief summarizes the legal, policy and operational issues that need to be considered in developing a national strategy for the intellectual property protection of traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions.

Legal Protection for Traditional Knowledge calls attention to the vital contributions that aboriginal knowledge makes to global development and how the legal systems in place, particularly in India, must change to protect this knowledge.This book is a must-read for researchers in economics, development studies, and international law.

International developments since the mid-1990s have signalled an awareness of the importance and validity of traditional knowledge and cultural property. The adoption of the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the establishment of the WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore demonstrate an emerging trend towards the recognition of the rights of communities and the importance of culture in shaping international law and policy. This book examines how developments to protect collectively held knowledge transpose to circumstances which may not meet the usually understood criteria of what is considered to be an indigenous or traditional group. This includes communally derived cultural products which have emerged out of communities and subsequently formed a part of the national or popular culture. The book considers the steel pan of Trinidad and Tobago, punta rock music from Belize, Brazilian capoeira, and the cajón of Peru as key cases studies of this. By exploring the impact of past and recent international developments to protect traditional knowledge, Sharon Le Gall highlights a category of cultural signifiers which lies outside the scope of intellectual property protection, as well as the protection proposed for traditional knowledge and advocated for intangible cultural property. The book proposes a reinterpretation of Joseph Raz’s interest theory of group rights in order to accommodate the rights advocated for collectively derived cultural signifiers on the basis of their value as symbols of identity. In doing so, Le Gall offers an original account of how those signifiers, which may not be described as exclusively ‘traditional’ or ‘indigenous’ and held in ways which are not ‘traditional’ or ‘customary’, may be accommodated in emerging traditional knowledge laws.

..This Guide intends to provide information for policy-makers, heads of intellectual property (IP) offices, and other decision-makers in countries in transition, on issues they need to consider before putting a legal framework in place. It aims to raise awareness of existing methods for the legal protection of traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, as well as to improve understanding of the interrelations, at international, regional and national levels, between the IP system, on the one hand, and traditional knowledge/traditional cultural expressions and their implications for economic, social, cultural and technical development, on the other hand.