A quick editorial note: the new “Around the Web” category will feature news & articles related to cultural property that we stumble upon on the web. Their collection is intended to give an overview of developments in the area of research. They do not, however, reflect the views of the research group.
1. “Turning Point” At WIPO Pulls Traditional Knowledge Debate Out At Eleventh Hour — by Kaitlin Mara (IP Watch)
After a year of stalled deliberations on the issue of protecting traditional knowledge, genetic resources, and traditional cultural expressions, delegates at the World Intellectual Property Organization General Assemblies on 1 October found a compromise text that gives the committee its strongest mandate yet. The Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC) “is alive,” General Assemblies Vice-Chair Mohamed Abderraouf Bdioui Raouf of Tunisia said afterward. The committee had come to the end of its two-year mandate and, despite devoting most of the last two sessions to future work, had not yet been able to agree on a new mandate. It had been meeting continuously on these issues for about a decade.
2. Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge: Can the New WIPO Mandate Deliver on Biopiracy? — by Sisule F. Musungu (IQsensato)
On 1 October 2009, the last day of the 47th Series of Meetings of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) General Assemblies, a new mandate for its Intergovernmental Committee on Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (commonly known as ‘the IGC’) was agreed by the Member States. The last minute agreement, following a year of wrangling, was hailed by many as a major breakthrough, particularly for the African Group. WIPO’s Director General called it “a real step forward”. The African Group, with the support of many developing countries, had insisted on a mandate that would deliver a ‘binding’ treaty on these issues in two years time.
3. Bridges Trade BioRes Review 3(2) (PDF) — International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD)
The October 2009 edition of Bridges Trade BioRes features articles on the inclusion of biodiversity and traditional knowledge in Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), biopiracy and the establishment of an ‘Intellectual Property and Sustainable Development’ unit within the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IGE).
4. To Catch a Looter — by Roger Atwood (NY Times)
In 1994, residents of eight villages in northwestern Peru — a region of deserts and oases that looks much like Iraq — organized citizens’ patrols. The patrols weren’t out to stop house burglars or cattle rustlers. They were looking for looters, who, for several years, had plundered the area to feed the robust international market for pre-Inca artifacts. I spent a few days with one of these patrols in the village of Úcupe in 2002. The members were unarmed and well organized, and they knew the terrain as well as you know your dining room. When they spotted looters digging up the overgrown ancient burial mounds that dot the landscape, they surrounded them and called the police. In this way, I saw the patrols apprehend three potential looters without firing a shot.