Contents:
Cambridge Core - Public International Law - The Protection of Biodiversity and Traditional Knowledge in International Law of Intellectual Property - by Jonathan . bahana-line.com: The Protection of Biodiversity and Traditional Knowledge in International Law of Intellectual Property (Cambridge Intellectual Property and.
This data will be updated every 24 hours. Get access Buy the print book. Check if you have access via personal or institutional login. Log in Register Recommend to librarian. Cambridge University Press Online publication date: August Print publication year: Cambridge Intellectual Property and Information Law Export citation Recommend to librarian Recommend this book.
Please enter a valid email address Email already added. Actions for selected content:. Please be advised that item s you selected are not available. Your Kindle email address Please provide your Kindle email. By using this service, you agree that you will only keep articles for personal use, and will not openly distribute them via Dropbox, Google Drive or other file sharing services Please confirm that you accept the terms of use.
Save Search You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches". Get access Check if you have access via personal or institutional login. There are also many initiatives underway to document traditional knowledge. In most cases the motive is to preserve or disseminate it, or to use it, for example, in environmental management, rather than for the purpose of legal protection. There are nevertheless concerns that if documentation makes traditional knowledge more widely available to the general public, especially if it can be accessed on the Internet, this could lead to misappropriation and use in ways that were not anticipated or intended by traditional knowledge holders.
At the same time, documentation can help protect traditional knowledge, for example, by providing a confidential or secret record of traditional knowledge reserved for the relevant community only. These examples demonstrate the importance of ensuring that documentation of traditional knowledge is linked to an intellectual property strategy and does not take place in a policy or legal vacuum.
In the WIPO talks, many argue that use of traditional knowledge ought to be subject to free, prior and informed consent, especially for sacred and secret materials. However, others fear that granting exclusive control over traditional cultures could stifle innovation, diminish the public domain and be difficult to implement in practice. Genetic resources themselves are not intellectual property they are not creations of the human mind and thus cannot be directly protected as intellectual property.
Issues under discussion at WIPO include:. WIPO also deals with the intellectual property aspects of mutually agreed terms for fair and equitable benefit-sharing.
It has developed, and regularly updates, an online database of relevant contractual practices , and has prepared draft guidelines on intellectual property clauses in access and benefit-sharing agreements. Traditional cultural expressions folklore are seen as integral to the cultural and social identities of indigenous and local communities, embodying know-how and skills, and transmitting core values and beliefs. Protecting folklore contributes to economic development, encourages cultural diversity and helps preserve cultural heritage.
Traditional cultural expressions can sometimes be protected by existing systems, such as copyright and related rights, geographical indications, appellations of origin, trademarks and certification marks. For example, contemporary adaptations of folklore are copyrightable, while performances of traditional songs and music may come under the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty.
Some countries also have special legislation for the protection of folklore. Because the existing international intellectual property system does not fully protect traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, many communities and governments have called for an international legal instrument providing sui generis protection.
An international legal instrument would define what is meant by traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, who the rights holders would be, how competing claims by communities would be resolved, and what rights and exceptions ought to apply. Working out the details is complex and there are divergent views on the best ways forward, including whether intellectual property-type rights are appropriate for protecting traditional forms of innovation and creativity. To take just one example, communities may wish to control all uses of their traditional cultural expressions, including works inspired by them, even if they are not direct copies.
Copyright law, on the other hand, permits building on the work of others, provided there is sufficient originality. The text of the legal instrument will have to define where the line is to be drawn between legitimate borrowing and unauthorized appropriation. On genetic resources, countries agree that intellectual property protection and the conservation of biodiversity should be mutually supportive, but differ on how this should be achieved and whether any changes to current intellectual property rules are necessary.
Representatives of indigenous and local communities are assisted by the WIPO Voluntary Fund to attend the WIPO talks, and their active participation will continue to be crucial for a successful outcome. WIPO members have agreed to expedite their work so as to decide in late whether to convene a diplomatic conference for final adoption of one or more international instruments.
Artificial Intelligence Universities Gender Equality. Home WIPO Media Center Background Briefs Traditional Knowledge and Intellectual Property — Background Brief The current international system for protecting intellectual property was fashioned during the age of industrialization in the West and developed subsequently in line with the perceived needs of technologically advanced societies. Two types of intellectual property protection are being sought: Defensive protection aims to stop people outside the community from acquiring intellectual property rights over traditional knowledge.
India, for example, has compiled a searchable database of traditional medicine that can be used as evidence of prior art by patent examiners when assessing patent applications.