1. TK Bulletin on Traditional Knowledge and Climate Change
Following up on our last post on the climate summit in Copenhagen, the TK Bulletin has some recent entries (see here, here and here) on the connection between traditional knowledge and climate change as well as on the role of Indigenous People’s involvement in the UNFCC negotations. Maintained by the United Nations University, the TK Bulletin is alway a good resource to stay up to date with international developments related to issues of traditional knowledge.
2. WIPO Traditional Knowledge Meeting Stalls, But Begins To Breach ‘Trust Gap’ — Kaitlin Mara (IP Watch)
After an auspicious beginning on substantive issues, the World Intellectual Property Organization traditional knowledge committee stalled on matters of procedure at the end of its meeting last week. With no mandate, a committee working group will not meet in early 2010 as planned, and the full committee will move meet again sooner than scheduled to try to agree on process.
3. Traditional Knowledge Action Plan Launched — Voxy.co.nz
The Traditional Knowledge Action Plan for Forum Island Countries (FICs) has been launched marking a milestone development for the region. The Action Plan was launched at a Traditional Knowledge workshop convened by the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat and World Intellectual Property Rights Organisation (WIPO) last week in Nadi. The meeting was attended by Traditional Knowledge and Intellectual Property Rights experts and senior government officials from across the region.
4. India Needs to Develop Strong Legal System Against Bio-Piracy — Peethaambaran Kunnathoor (PharmaBiz)
A concrete legal mechanism should be in place to protect and sharing of India’s biodiversity knowledge of indigenous communities, or else it will become the property of somebody else as per the provisions of existing Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), according to professor K V Krishnamurthy, president, Foundation for the Revitalization of Local Health Traditions, Bangalore. The usurping of indigenous knowledge or traditional knowledge, including medical knowledge, without any benefit to the owner-society is called bio-piracy or gene robbing. There are more than 250 recorded cases of bio-piracy relating to traditional knowledge systems. As far as Indian cases are concerned, the cases related to Neem, Basmati and Turmeric are the popular ones. The existing legal systems and International Conventions such as Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) cannot protect traditional knowledge and traditional medicinal systems, Krishnamurthy asserted.
5. Archives Dept on a Hunt for Ayurveda Manuscripts — Asha P. Nair (Express Buzz)
For a change, the State Archives Department will shed its scholarly image and take a step closer to people. The department is all set to launch a hunt for the ancient manuscripts and records on ayurveda and traditional knowledge, probably lying dusty and moth-eaten in a large number of Kerala homes. A survey will be launched on November 13 to ‘collect, preserve and digitise records and manuscripts related to ayurveda and traditional knowledge of Kerala’. Though the department can boast of a solid collection of State’s past in political, social and historical arena, there isn’t much data available with it when it comes to traditional medicine or way of life in the State ages ago.
6. Protection of Traditional Terms and Expressions – Changes to the Trade Marks Act (South Africa) — Adams & Adams
The IP Laws Amendment Bill is currently the subject of a process of consultation in cabinet between relevant ministries. According to the Director of Commercial Law and Policy at the DTI, Mr. MacDonald Netshitenzhe, the Bill should be placed before a parliamentary portfolio committee by early October with a view to being passed by early December. The proposed legislation could have wide ranging implications for the law governing a broad range of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in South Africa, including performer’s rights, copyright, designs and Trade Marks. However, this article highlights aspects of the Bill that are most pertinent to the law of Trade Marks.