Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
we are here at the Ono Academic College Israel here in the International Conference traditional knowledge and access to Knowledge and access to medicine
and i'm happy to present Mr. Wend Wendland who is Head of the division of traditional knowledge at World Intelectual Organization, (WIPO) Geneva.
good evening, lets star with the first question, what is traditional knowledge?
it reffers to the knowledge systems of indigenous people in other local tribes and groups around the world.
and as knowledge tends to be colactavly ownd, it tends to be reflective of their identity,
it's evolving, and because of it's age and the fact that it's collectivly ownd,
it's often not protected by the conventional intelectual provedance system
can you give some examples of traditional knowledge?
it is found in very many diverse fields and on the one side of the spectrum one could talk about folklore
or traditional cultural expresions, this are expresions of knowledge and culture manifested in the form of music, dance, design
architecture and symbols and then many examples in which indigenous music or symbols or designs have been
what we call misappropriated or used by third parties in the wrong context from indigenous point of view.
the other end of the spectrum is what we call technical knowledge, the knowledge related and the know how related to by diversity
healthcare, agriculture and so on and again their are examples of where pharmaceutical companies ans other companies
have explioted the knowledge have developped inventions drugs for example have and patented them withou the indigenous people being aware
ok, with the Menora the Israeli Jewish symbol or the David shield, would it be considered as a traditional knowledge? what do you think?
well depends on the definition of traditional knowledge ofcourse, but again if you go back to the definition i gave earlier
it's part of identity, collectivly owned and evolving i would say that some of these symbols theoretically yes could fall within the definition
i think the question from intellectual property piont of view however is,
are these symbols liebel to misappropriation in the intellectual property sence
beacouse you only need an intellectual property type of protection if these symbols are being copied and commercialized
in the intellectual property sense
it's very clearl that these aspects of intangual caltural heritage including symbols such as you mentioned
ought to be preserved beacouse they are reflective of identity and one might want to maintain the link between the religion and the symbol
but whether they need intellectual property that's a separate question
can you elaborate what is WIPO doing in order to protect this traditional knowledge problem?
well WIPO is part of the UN system weare a specialized agency in the UN system
we have member states that are our clients that run WIPO they set the program and budgets and the objective of WIPO
and esentially what my devision does in the TK field is, we do two things
we facilitate an international negotiation that is taking place between the member states
who have decided that they want to discuss the development of an international leagal instrument
that would provide an intellectual property like protection for traditional knowledge
and when we facilitate the process we don't have a view offcourse as the member states who decide who have the views
it is up to them to decide finally on the content of the instrument but we prepare the documentation and we help the member states understand
the diferent issues and options that lie befor them
the second thing we do is we capacity builds, we strengthen capacity in countries to establish effective national systems
and we work with many goverments around the world and indigenous people who are trying to understand the issues better
including the use of existing IP system, because that can also provide some protection for TK
what are the main challenges in your work, what are the difficulties that you are facing?
there had been a number of procedural challenges, challenges to do with participation in the process of course we want all
the member states to be involved they all are involved but indigenous peoples as the holders of TK systems
need to be involved as well. so participation is one of the issues
substantively there's still not complete agreement on a number of core questions, what is traditional knowledge
so the what question, why should it be protected? what is the rational and justification for protecting TK
and what were the consiqueces intended and unintended be of a new system of protection
who should benefit from the protection? member states have very diferent views about the roll of the state for example
should indigenous peoples be the direct rights holders themselves or should the state hold the right and manage them on their behalf
and then finaly the question of what kind of kind of protection would be appropriate
should TK be given a copyright like or a patent like right, like an exclusive right
or shoud it be rather a system of compensation and acknowledgement which is also of course possible in the IP system
so these are the main questions, the why, the what, the who and the how.
now can you give an example of the how, like how can we really protect some songs or some agriculture plans being use by
firms and like for medicine or for commercial songs, loke how can it be protected if it's like well known and it's public domain allready
well public domain of course is a contraversial consept in this area, becouse these expresions and knowledge systems
are public domain from the perspective western IP system, but they are not public domain from the perspective indigenous people
because they have their own customary legal systems that create private domains and they don't believe in the public domain concept
one of the problems is indeed that it's public available knowledge, it's knowledge that has allready been published
in text books and in data bases and on the internet
the one approach in many approaches, but the one approach is to vest an exclusive property right in TK that would mean that a
pharmaceutical company or a fashion designer that wishes to use some aspect of folklore or TK
would need first the prier informed concent of the indigenous people or group
before it could use the knowledge systems or the folklore
this is potencialy dificult in practice becouse as you said much of the knowledge has been published allready
and it might be dificult to identify from whom to get the concent and it might actually stifle creativity
another approach might be to not have an exclusive right so to allow people to be inspired by other people Tk and folklore
but to ensure that third party users or second comers do two things three thing infact
if the use someone elses TK they acknowledge the source so that's a sign of respect that one was inspired by the work of so and so people
secondly they don't distort the original TK or expresion of folklore thye don't miss use in a way that would be offensive to the indigenous people concerned
and thirdly that if benefits are generated from a use of a TK or folklore that the benefits are shared in some way
and that kind of a system kind of a moral right plus benefit sharing system which is found in some other non IP systems
and is also rooted in the IP system might strike the right kind of balance
so the last question will be how did you get to this field of traditional knowledge?
well i'm a IP lawyer by background and i believe in the IP system i believe that innovation is good for human wellfare
i believe the one shpuld recognize and protect the innovation of human beings so i believe in the rational of the IP system
but i think it's well known that the IP system it's credibility is in question these days the copywrite system the patent system
is critisized fro verious angles and i think that the possebility of the IP system broadening it's understanding of what is intellectual property
that is not simply creations that were envisaged at the time that the IP system was develloped in western Europe in the 18 hundreds
the late 19th century i think if one could broaden the understanding of what IP is
is good for the IP system it would be good for the credibility of the IP system for it to recognize new beneficiaries including
indigenous peoples that are creators allthough they create in pehaps diferent ways to that as was envisaged
by the founders of the IP system
ok it was fascinating i'm sure you are the right person for the job so i wish you good luck and we are looking forward to see
what will be the consent by diferent countries
thank you