THE ROLE OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IN TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE: AN OVERVIEW
Intellectual properties (IP) are legal property rights over creations of the mind, both artistic and commercial, and the corresponding fields of law. Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; ideas, discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs.
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Common types of intellectual property include copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and trade secrets. The majority of intellectual property rights provide creators of original works economic incentive to develop and share ideas through a form of temporary monopoly.
Traditional knowledge consist consisting of the original rights of indigenous peoples and local communities over various elements -- plants and genetic resources, traditional medicines, agricultural methods and local technologies, and cultural products (e.g. weaving, pottery, poetry, folklore, music, and the like) which they have discovered and developed. As such, these communities become the general owners of the (i) informal and formal communal systems of innovations through which they produce, select, improve, and breed a diversity of crop and livestock varieties; and (ii) the plant varieties, genetic resources, traditional medicines, agricultural practices and devices, and technologies produced through these systems. However, since many indigenous communities do not have a written tradition or culture, recognition of TK through a system of IPRs has always been difficult and complex. No IPR recognition is given to the more informal, communal system of innovation by farmers and indigenous communities, a process that takes a long period of time. There are only measures on how to protect TK from use. This paper aims to provide an overview of the legal framework and how TK is treated and/or protected under existing measures. This paper also identifies key issues and recommendations on the role of IPRs on TK.
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