Who owns traditional knowledge ?

Can traditional knowledge fit into IPR regimes?

This paper examines issues relating to the question of whether rights to use of traditional knowledge belong inside international intellectual property rights (IPR) regimes or outside them. It further presents a view on the complexities and contradictions in the development of sui generis systems aimed at formalising relationships between holders of traditional knowledge and bio-prospectors.

The author concludes that traditional knowledge does not lend itself easily to concepts of property in any form of known IPRs and that the catch all term sui generis is inadequate without a system of use rights and obligations to back it up at least at national level. Further, the author argues that an international sui generis system cannot be instituted without first constructing national sui generis systems. To this end the paper calls for international guidelines be agreed to help harmonise national systems. Policy issues to be addressed include:

the role of communities and functions of communally held knowledge in traditional knowledge
the structuring of economic incentives
rights and obligations that are anchored in responses and behaviour rather than in resources
valuation
the role of private and public investors

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Who owns traditional knowledge ?