Tag: intellectual property

Beyond Intellectual Property (M3, #5)

http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-9327-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

This website pertains to the book entitled Beyond Intellectual Property: Toward Traditional Resource Rights for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities by Darrell A. Posey and Graham Dutfield.

If a stranger entered your community, and started asking questions about its people, its resources, and its history, what would you do?

The above question must be considered from the perspective of the world’s Indigenous peoples who are tired of being ignored while outsiders profit from their intellectual property and traditional resource rights. Dutfield and Posey provide sound and insightful advice on how Indigenous people can deal with this and many other issues.

Beyond Intellectual Property “provides an invaluable and eye-opening look into one of the most provocative and explosive issues of this century and likely the next: the patenting of life”.

This book can be read online, downloaded or ordered from the website. It is also available in French and Spanish. The excerpts I’ve read are fascinating – I look forward to having the time to delve deeper in the near future!


Indigenous Traditional Knowledge and Intellectual Property Rights (M3, #2)

http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/library/PRBpubs/prb0338-e.htm

This is an informative and relevant website from the publications List of the Canadian Library of Parliament (prepared by Tonina Simeone). Information is organized under the following sub-headings:

  • Introducation
  • How Does Indigenous Traditional Knowledge Differ from Western Science?
  • Why Protect Traditional Knowledge?
  • How to Protect Traditional Knowledge
  • Limitations of the Intellectual Property Rights Regime in Protecting Traditional Knowledge
  • International Initiatives to Protect Traditional Knowledge
  • Selected References
  • Endnotes

I like how the content of this website is concise and well-researched. It helped me to better understand how traditional knowledge has been exploited, and how awareness of this injustice has recently led to improvements, such as the development of the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC).

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