Recognition of TK in the Latin America region - an example to follow

A couple of weeks ago the Peruvian National Institute for the Defence of Competition and Intellectual Property (INDECOPI), in order to preserve the knowledge that native peoples have on the use of biodiversity, presented 453 titles of collective knowledge to communities located in the Loreto region in Peru. 

The indigenous peoples of this region managed to register 453 knowledge related to more than 120 plants in the Amazon area, covering different uses such as food, medicine, vegetable dyes, etc. To date, INDECOPI has registered over 800 TK in the name of indigenous communities.By these titles the Peruvian State through the INDECOPI guarantees the rights of these peoples that the use of their knowledge is made only with their consent -- they are the true owners.

In August 2002, Law 27811 was enacted in Peru establishing a sui generis intellectual property protection for collective knowledge of indigenous peoples linked to biological resources, ie the properties, uses and characteristics of the biodiversity.

Since 2010, the Office of Inventions and New Technologies of INDECOPI works with the Research Institute of the Peruvian Amazon (IIAP), through its programs PIBA (Biodiversity Research Program Amazon) and Cultural Diversity Research and Economics Amazon (Sociodiversity) in the recovery of the collective knowledge of indigenous peoples. They live with the people, experiencing their customs and needs. Only then TK is identified, reassessed and recorded, so that in future the indigenous community gets the benefit.

Source INDECOPI.