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.

WIPO Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC) – moving forward?

Meetings, meetings and more meetings....we all hope that these reunions leave us with a step closer to a goal. But, are we optimistic? On the 22nd session of the WIPO Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC) which took place from 9-13 June it seemed that we are still in standby! According to the Intellectual Property Watch, International IP Policy what was supposed to be a procedural matter by the Committee, it turned out to be an informal consultation “without reaching a compromise on the agenda”. Moreover, a panel of Indigenous Peoples emphasized the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The theme covered (or at least intended to be covered) was “Intellectual Property, Traditional Cultural Expressions and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Perspectives of Indigenous Peoples.” Mr Valmaine Toki, vice-chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues sees the process of the IGC containing two issues: 1.- “The ability of Indigenous Peoples to participate meaningfully within the process; and, 2.- to recognise the intrinsic rights of Indigenous Peoples to their traditional knowledge (TK), genetic resources (GR) and traditional cultural expressions (TCEs).”

 In this regard Mr Toki recommended that there is the need to establish “an indigenous co-chair to the IGC, and establish a panel of indigenous experts on international human rights law to ensure the text aligns with those basic international human rights norms and principles.”

Source Intellectual Property Watch.

Peru on protecting traditional knowledge

The Peruvian Institute for the Defense of Competition and Intellectual Property Protection (INDECOPI), meet last week in Lima with representatives of fourteen countries in Latin America. The meeting aimed to share experience on systems of resource protection and traditional knowledge. This time, the institution will share the Peruvian experience in the protection of genetic resources and traditional knowledge, specifically through the national registries of traditional knowledge and system identification, management and monitoring of cases of biopiracy.

INDECOPI says “Today, the importance of these resources and knowledge is becoming increasingly clear, given its application and use in different branches of food industry and health, and becoming part of the identity and cultural heritage of our people”.

Peru set up a legislative framework to protect genetic resources and traditional knowledge -- Law No. 27811, which covers a sui generis rule of collective traditional knowledge related to biodiversity. Peru also has a National Anti-Biopiracy Commission, chaired by INDECOPI, which aims to identify, analyze and deal with cases of biopiracy involving Peruvian origin resources or traditional knowledge of indigenous Peruvians. The Commission has resolved favourably to the Peruvian and indigenous peoples, 10 cases of biopiracy (in the patent offices of Japan, Korea, France and European Patent Office).

INDECOPI reports that the meeting was also attended by Chief of Staff Advisors to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Mauritius Chabaneix Belling and Begoña Venero, Head of the Section of Genetic Resources and Knowledge traditional World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva.

Source INDECOPI.

Drug discovery and Biopiracy

On May 9th, the University of Buckingham UK, received a privileged visit. Prof Graham Dutfield from the University of Leeds gave as a talk regarding a paper that he published last year in the topic of 'Traditional Knowledge, drug discovery and patent-based Biopiracy’ (European Intellectual Property Review 33(4)).

The (TK) King and I

Room F06 was packed and hot -- I am not sure if the topic was a boiling one or it was a warm date BUT at the end of the date, we did have some sizzling questions. The mixture of the audience was from different areas such as: Medical Law and Ethics, Intellectual Property Law; Environmental Law, Human Rights and Tort.

Prof Graham started by explaining the term biopiracy – but very carefully challenging on whether the word should be coined. Anyways, he continued to say that it could be regarded as misappropriation [most people called stealing] of biological resources or traditional knowledge (TK) through the patent system; and/or it is the unauthorised collection [once again most people called stealing] for commercial ends of genetic resources of TK. I mentioned the word ‘stealing’ because it is the people’s common word – not the lawyery one.

The talk proceeded deeper into the issue: is TK important in the pharmaceutical industry? and if it is so, what part or role, if any, TK takes into the invention per se? To patent an invention there are some requirements that need to be fulfilled: novelty (new) and inventive step (non-obvious) – and industrial application, but focus being today in the first one. Is it new or novel the use of specific plants (containing some chemical properties) for the purpose of the cure/ treatment of ‘x’ disease? As Prof Graham mentioned, it may be new to us BUT not new perhaps to an indigenous healer – the query is: does this destroy novelty? Novelty is destroyed by use and/or publication. Yet, the problem with this issue is: how will a Patent Officer, let’s say in the UK, become aware of the use of this invention in a small village community of indigenous people in the Amazon? It is not common for healers or the said community to document this and what is more, sometimes they do not even share this knowledge with their own community but passes that info to a worthy Indian– it is a ritual (we called a trade secret). This is indeed a very difficult issue because in our world we need evidence.

How can we help? To document or not to document

I am afraid I do not have an answer. In one side of the coin, to document will give protection not only in situations of Patent and other intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), and moreover, will be helpful in cases of entitlement of land and preserving their culture. There is indeed the traditional knowledge digital library in place; but, on the other side of the coin, indigenous peoples want to keep their identity, heritage, autonomy, so why do they need to disclose their way of living? We need to remember that their purpose of life is not material to them. Their spirituality (not religion as such) is based on what they called ‘cosmovision’. It means people do not have hierarchy! Everything is part of the ‘one’ i.e. animals, land, people, plants; they all are part of the one cosmos. That is the reason why I cannot make my mind – I cannot recommend with a blind eye the documentation of this rituals. It is asking for transformation –perhaps an involuntary transformation and this may have negative effects.

The lecture of course covered many more issues, but this is the one that I felt needed some addressing today, perhaps tomorrow or another day I will cover other issues. Many thanks to Prof Graham for given us not only the time and his valuable knowledge BUT given us the chance to open our minds in a very interesting topic.

Save the date!

A goody bag comes in your way! It is full of different topics that cover indigenous peoples. From language to land and from human rights to traditional knowledge we will be able to see all these topics under one roof.

Here is what Dr Alexandra Xanthaki says:

Brunel Law School in collaboration with the UN Expert Mechanism on Indigenous Issues is organising an Expert Workshop on Indigenous Languages and Cultures at Brunel University on the 8th-9th March 2012. The Workshop aims to contribute to the Annual Report of the Expert Mechanism, which will be on this same topic.

The themes that will be discussed in the conference include:

* An overview of indigenous peoples’ right to culture under international human rights law
* Indigenous peoples’ rights to language
* Indigenous peoples’ cultural self-determination and autonomy
* Indigenous peoples’ right to culture and lands, territories and resources, including reparations
* Custom, human rights and justified limitations
* Indigenous peoples’ traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions
* Indigenous intellectual property rights
* indigenous identities and spirituality

Speakers include:

Elsa Stamatopoulou (Former Chief of the Secretariat of Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues)
Prof. Julian Burger (Former Chief of UN Minority and Indigenous Unit, currently Essex University)
Prof. Siegfried Wiessner (St Thomas Law School, US)
Prof. Rene Kuppe (University of Wien)
Dr Federico Lenzerini (Sienna University)
Prof. Samson (Essex University)
Prof. Paul Havenmann (Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London)
Dr. Robert Dunbar (University of Aberdeen)
Dr. Damien Short (Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London)
Prof. Joshua Castellino (Head of Department, Middlesex University)
Dr. Marilena Alivizatou (UCL)
Prof. Sonia Harris-Short (University of Birmingham)
Dr. Susan Aikmann (University of East Anglia)
Prof. Graham Dutfield (University of Leeds)
Dr Ghanea-Hercock (Oxford)
Prof. Marie-Benedicte Denbour (University of Sussex)
Dr. Kristin Hausler (British Institute of International and Comparative Law)

Definitely, the team that was put together is of some notoriety in the area of Indigenous Peoples and hopefully you can be there –it’s a date!

not this type of date!

Anyone interested to attend can email Dr Alexandra Xanthaki at alexandra.xanthaki@brunel.ac.uk.