Protecting Cultural Industries to Promote Cultural Diversity: Dilemmas for International Policymaking Posed by the Recognition of Traditional Knowledge

Abstract

While the contributors to this section of the volume were invited to assess the suitability of intellectual property rights for traditional knowledge and cultural industries, none of the other contributors specifically examines the relationship between proposed rights and industries of a cultural nature. I will suggest that it is precisely this relationship that needs to be considered and that the policy issues posed by considerations of cultural identity and cultural diversity are likely to be the most difficult ones to engage in ongoing international negotiations with respect to cultural forms, forms of property, norms of expression and the optimal range of public goods. An anthropological view of traditional knowledge The term “traditional knowledge” is most often used to refer to knowledge, innovations, and practices relevant to the preservation of biological diversity, pursuant to the Convention on Biological Diversity, which may include knowledge concerning agricultural and medicinal techniques as well as forms of animal and landscape management. The terms indigenous knowledge, tribal knowledge, farmers' knowledge, rural knowledge and folk knowledge are also widely used. The coupling of traditional knowledge with folklore by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in its Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge, and Folklore has encouraged intellectual property scholars to use the term more loosely so as to include other forms of collectively held cultural goods.

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