Cannibalizing epistemes: Will modern law protect traditional cultural expressions?

Intellectual Property and Traditional Cultural Expressions in a Digital Environment

Volumn , Issue , 2008, Pages 17-45

  Teubner, Gunther ^a   Fischer Lescano, Andreas ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BREMEN   (Germany)

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EID: 77955788218     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book    
DOI: None     Document Type: Chapter

References (81)

1. Heinrich Schmutterer, The Neem Tree Azadirachta Indica A. Juss. and Other Meliaceous Plants: Sources of Unique Natural Products for Integrated Pest Management, Medicine, Industry and Other Purposes, Weinheim: VCH, 1995.
2. For details on both cases, see Murray Lee Eiland, "Patenting Traditional Medicine" (2007) Journal of the Patent and Trademark Office Society 89, pp. 45-84; Anja v. Hahn, Traditionelles Wissen indigener und lokaler Gemeinschaften zwischen geistigen Eigentumsrechten und der public domain, Beiträge zum ausländischen öffentlichen Recht und Völkerrecht, Vol. 170, Berlin: Springer, 2004, at p. 270 (Turmeric) and at p. 279 (Neem Tree). See also Rekha Ramani, "Market Realities v. Indigenous Equities" (2001) Brooklyn Journal of International Law 26, pp. 1147-1176, at footnote 5 - regarding the patent of Turmeric. The literature concerning the patent of the Neem Tree is extensive, particularly instructive: Shalini Randeria, "Rechtspluralismus und überlappende Souveränitäten: Globalisierung und der listige Staat in Indien" (2006) Soziale Welt 57, pp. 229-258, at p. 237; Emily Marden, "The Neem Tree Patent: International Conflict over the Commodification of Life" (1999) Boston College International and Comparative Law Review 22, pp. 279-295, at p. 283; Vandana Shiva and Radha Holla-Bhar, "Piracy by Patent: The Case of the Neem Tree" in Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith (eds), The Case of the Global Economy: And for a Turn Toward the Local, San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1996, pp. 146-159, at p. 148.
3. Reexamination Certificate B1, 3500, 21 April 1998, cancelling claims in US Patent No. 5. 401. 504; Graham Dutfield, "TRIPS-Related Aspects of Traditional Knowledge" (2001) Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 33, pp. 233-275.
4. Implementing Regulations to the Convention on the Grant of European Patents (European Patent Convention) of 5 October 1973, as last amended by the Act revising Article 63 EPC of 17 December 1991 and by Decision of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation of 21 December 1978, of 13 December 1994, of 20 October 1995, of 5 December 1996, of 10 December 1998, and of 27 October 2005, as well as the preliminary applicable regulations of the Act revising the Convention on the Grant of European Patents of 29 November 2000
5. EPO, Decision revoking the European Patent, 13 February 2001, Application No. 90250319.2-2117, Patent No. 0436257; the objection to this decision was decided negatively on 8 March 2005 (Az. T 0416/01 - 3.3.2).
6. In the following text, the concept of traditional knowledge due to the holistic context of the production of knowledge thereby refers also to each form of traditional culture
7. For the fragmentation of the international law on traditional knowledge, see Martin A. Girsberger's contribution to this volume.
8. NCCR, International Symposium "Traditional Cultural Expressions in a Digital Environment", Lucerne, Symposium's Programme, June 2007
9. Martti Koskenniemi, Fragmentation of International Law: Difficulties Arising from the Diversification and Expansion of International Law, Report of the Study Group of the International Law Commission: Draft conclusions of the work of the Study Group, ILC, 58th Session, A/CN.4/L.682, 13 April 2006; see also the (inferential) Report of the Study Group of the International Law Commission. Draft Conclusions of the Work of the Study Group: Fragmentation of International Law: Difficulties Arising from the Diversification and Expansion of International Law, ILC, 58th Session, A/CN.4/L.702, 18 July 2006.
10. See Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Integrating Intellectual Property Rights and Development Policy, London: Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, September 2002
11. Raymond Boudon, Effets pervers et ordre social, Paris: Presse Universitaire Française, 1977
12. The Article reads as follows: "The Central Government shall endeavour to respect and protect the knowledge of local people relating to biological diversity, as recommended by the National Biodiversity Authority through such measures, which may include registration of such knowledge at the local, State or national levels, and other measures for protection, including sui generis system". Hereunto, see Thomas Cottier and Marion Panizzon, "Legal Perspectives on Traditional Knowledge: The Case for Intellectual Property Protection" (2004) Journal of International Economic Law 7, pp. 371-399, at p. 380.
13. See WIPO, Comparative Summary of Existing Sui Generis Measures and Law for the Protection of Traditional Knowledge, WIPO/GRTKF/IC/5/INF/4, 20 June 2003
14. Saskia Sassen, Territory-Authority-Rights - From Medieval to Global Assemblages, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006
15. Surya P. Sinha, "Legal Polycentricity" in Hanne Petersen and Henrik Zahle (eds), Legal Polycentricity: Consequences of Pluralism in Law, Aldershot: Dartmouth, 1995, pp. 31-69.
16. Rudolf Stichweh, "Strukturbildung in der Weltgesellschaft - Die Eigenstrukturen der Weltgesellschaft und die Regionalkulturen der Welt" in Thomas Schwinn (ed.), Die Vielfalt und Einheit der Moderne. Kultur- und strukturvergleichende Analysen, Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2006, pp. 239-257; this approach is used by Christoph Beat Graber in this volume.
17. Rosemary J. Coombe, "Protecting Cultural Industries to Promote Cultural Diversity: Dilemmas for International Policy-Making Posed by the Recognition of Traditional Knowledge" in Keith Maskus and Jerome Reichman (eds), International Public Goods and Transfer of Technology under a Globalized Intellectual Property Regime, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 559-614, at p. 606.
18. See also Michael F. Brown, Who Owns Native Culture, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004, at p. 107.
19. Beatriz Caiuby Labate and Wladimyr Sena Araujo, O Uso Ritual da Ayahuasca, Campinas: Mercado de Letras, 2004; Carsten Balzer, Wege zum Heil: Die Barquinha. Eine ethnologische Studie zu Transformation und Heilung in den Ayahuasca-Ritualen einer brasilianischen Religion, Mettingen: Brasilienkunde-Verlag, 2003; Benny Shannon, Antipodes of the Mind: Charting the Phenomenology of the Ayahuasca Experience, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002; Arturo Burga Freitas, Ayahuasca: Mitos, leyendas y relatos de la amazonía peruana, Lima: Tipo-Offset, 1980, at p. 55.
20. See the contributions in Jacques Mabit, Memoria del Segundo Foro Interamericano Sobre Espiritualidad Indígena, Lima: CICEI, 2001
21. Rosa Giove, La Liana de los Muertos al Rescate de la Vida, Tarapoto: Takiwasi, 2002
22. According to the patent specification: "The subject plant is being investigated for its medicinal value in cancer treatment and psycho-therapy. It is useful in treating post-encephalytic Parkinsonism and angina pectoris. It also has antiseptic, bactericidal properties and has both amoebicidal and antihelmentic action. It is an attractive house plant which seasonally blooms". See the summary, Description of US 5751P.
23. Request for Reexamination of US Plant Patent No. 5751, 30 March 1999.
24. Leanne M. Fecteau, "The Ayahuasca Patent Revocation: Raising Questions About Current US Patent Policy" (2001) Boston College Third World Law Journal 21, pp. 69-105; Glenn Wiser, "US Patent and Trademark Office Reinstates Ayahuasca Patent" (2001) Center for International Environmental Law Publications 25, pp. 1-14; Maggi Kohls, "Blackbeard or Albert Schweizer: Reconciling Biopiracy" (2007) Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property 6, pp. 108-137.
25. Valerie J. Phillips, "Half-Human Creatures, Plants and Indigenous Peoples: Musings on Ramifications of Western Notions of Intellectual Property and the Newman-Rifkin Attempt to Patent a Theoretical Half-Human Creature" (2005) Santa Clara Computer and High Technology Law Journal 21, pp. 383-451, at p. 402.
26. Marcelo Neves, Verfassung und Positivität des Rechts in der peripheren Moderne, Berlin: Duncker and Humblot, 1992
27. "No debemos focalizar sólo en la 'biodiversidad' y el conocimiento, porque estamos hablando sobre mucho más que éso. En realidad estamos hablando sobre toda nuestra concepción del mundo, nuestras culturas, nuestras tierras, nuestra espiritualidad como pueblos indígenas. Todo ésto está vinculado. Debemos contemplar el panorama completo" (Stella Tamang, Federación de las Nacionalidades, Nepal, en el Seminario/Consulta Asiático, cited in Grupo Internacional de Trabajo sobre Asuntos Indígenas (IWGIA), "Los Pueblos Indígenas Reivindican su Integridad Intelectual" (1995) Asuntos Indíginas, at pp. 14-15).
28. For a critique of the concept of bioprospecting, see Vandana Shiva, "Bioprospecting as Sophisticated Biopiracy" (2007) Journal of Women in Culture and Society 32, pp. 307-313.
29. See e.g. Articles 1(1) and 12(3) of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Regarding Daes' criticism of well-meaning projects protecting traditional knowledge by a global database and thus subduing it to the principles of modern sciences, see Erica-Irene Daes, "Intellectual Property and Indigenous Peoples" (2001) American Society of International Law Proceedings 95, pp. 143-150, at p. 144.
30. Regarding the system of theoretical approach to basic rights as institution, see Niklas Luhmann, Grundrechte als Institution: Ein Beitrag zur politischen Soziologie, Berlin: Duncker and Humblot, 1965. See also Gert Verschraegen, "Human Rights and Modern Society: A Sociological Analysis from the Perspective of Systems Theory" (2002) Journal of Law and Society 29, pp. 258-281. Regarding his elaborations in various societal contexts, see Gunther Teubner, "Die anonyme Matrix: Menschenrechtsverletzungen durch 'private' transnationale Akteure" (2006) Der Staat 45, pp. 161-187. Karl-Heinz Ladeur, "Helmut Ridders Konzeption der Meinungs- und Pressefreiheit in der Demokratie" (1999) Kritische Justiz 32, pp. 281-300; Christoph Beat Graber and Gunther Teubner, "Art and Money: Constitutional Rights in the Private Sphere" (1998) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 18, pp. 61-74.
31. For continuative analyses, see Gralf-Peter Calliess, "Reflexive Transnational Law: The Privatisation of Civil Law and the Civilisation of Private Law" (2002) Zeitschrift für Rechtssoziologie 24, pp. 185-217; Peer Zumbansen, "The Privatization of Corporate Law Corporate Governance Codes and Commercial Self-Regulation" (2002) Juridicum 3, pp. 32-40; Ralph Christensen and Andreas Fischer-Lescano, Das Ganze des Rechts. Vom hierarchischen zum reflexiven Verständnis deutscher und europäischer Grundrechte, Berlin: Duncker and Humblot, 2007.
32. See Tade Matthias Spranger, "Indigene Völker, 'Biopiraterie' und internationales Patentrecht" (2001) Gewerblicher Rechtsschutz und Urheberrecht 2, pp. 89-92, at p. 91.
33. Sally Engle Merry, "Legal Pluralism" (1988) Law and Society Review 22, pp. 869-896.
34. Francis Snyder, Capitalism and Legal Change: An African Transformation, New York: Academic Press, 1981
35. Anthony Allott, Essays in African Law, London: Butterworths, 1960, at p. 62.
36. Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Toward a New Legal Common Sense: Law, Globalization and Emancipation, Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2003, at p. 417.
37. The Canadian constitutional law - by its collective and institutional understanding - may make advances to this concept of basic rights. Article 35(1) of the Canadian Constitutional Act of 1982 reads as follows: "The existing aboriginal and treaty rights of the aboriginal peoples of Canada are hereby recognized and affirmed."
38. See Christoph Beat Graber's contribution to this volume; Christoph Beat Graber and Martin Girsberger, "Traditional Knowledge at the International Level: Current Approaches and Proposals for a Bigger Picture That Includes Cultural Diversity" in Jörg Schmid and Hansjörg Seiler (eds), Recht des ländlichen Raums Festgabe der Universität Luzern für Paul Richli zum 60. Geburtstag, Zurich: Schulthess, 2006, pp. 243-282.
39. Sebastian Bödeker, Oliver Moldenhauer and Benedikt Rubbel, Wissensallmende: Gegen die Privatisierung des Wissens der Welt durch "geistige Eigentumsrechte", Hamburg: VSA-Verlag, 2004
40. Siddartha Prakash, Trade and Development Case Studies, Country Studies: India, Local Species - Turmeric, Neem and Basmati, Geneva: World Trade Organization, 1998, at p. 83.
41. WIPO, Technical Proposals on Databases and Registries of Traditional Knowledge and Biological/Genetic Resources, Document submitted by the Asian Group, WIPO/GRTKF/IC/4/14, 6 December 2006, at Annex
42. For details, see William van Caenegem, "The Public Domain: Scientia Nullius" (2002) European Intellectual Property Journal 24, pp. 324-330.
43. WIPO, Intellectual Property Needs and Expectations of Traditional Knowledge Holders, WIPO Report on Fact-Finding Missions on Intellectual Property and Traditional Knowledge (1998-1999), Geneva: WIPO, 2001, at p. 226.
44. WIPO Doc. PT/DC/47.
45. For an instructive synopsis in regard to the complex of WIPO patent law, see Carlos Correa and Sisule Musungu, "The WIPO Patent Agenda: The Risk for Developing Countries", South Center Working Papers 12/2002
46. See e.g. WIPO, Decisions of the Tenth Session of the Committee, 30 November-8 December 2006, WIPO/GRTKF/IC/10, 8 December 2006.
47. WIPO, The Protection of Traditional Cultural Expressions/Expressions of Folklore: Revised Objectives and Principles, WIPO/GRTKF/IC/8/4, 8 April 2005 (unaltered in WIPO/GRTKF/IC/9/4, 9 January 2006, WIPO/GRTKF/IC/10/4, 2 October 2006, WIPO/GRTKF/IC/11/4(c), 26 April 2007, and WIPO/GRTKF/ IC/12/4(c), 6 December 2007; reproduced in the Annex of this volume) and WIPO, Revised Draft Provisions for the Protection of Traditional Knowledge: Policy Objectives and Core Principles, WIPO/GRTKF/IC/9/5, 9 January 2006
48. Four Directions Council, Forests, Indigenous Peoples and Biodiversity, Submission to the Secretariat for the Convention on Biological Diversity, Lethbridge, Canada: Four Directions Council, 2006
49. See in this sense, Joint Statement of the Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism (IPCB), Call of the Earth/Llamado de la Tierra (COE), and International Indian Treaty Council (IITC), WIPO/GRTKF/IC/10, 4 December 2006, at para. 2: "We find it necessary to state that we find the separation of TCEs and traditional knowledge rather artificial and contrary to the holistic nature of Indigenous peoples' cultural heritage."
50. ECOSOC, Information Received from the United Nations System: World Intellectual Property Organization, E/C.19/2006/6/Add. 13, 21 March 2006, at para. 10.
51. ILO-Convention (No 169), adopted in Geneva on 7 June 1989 by the General Conference of the International Labour Organisation at its 76th Session, entered into force 5 September 1991. See Kerrin Schillhorn, Kulturelle Rechte indigener Völker und Umweltvölkerrecht - Verhältnis und Vereinbarkeit, Berlin: Duncker and Humblot, 2000, at p. 50.
52. United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights, Draft United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, A/HRC/1/L.3, 23 June 2006.
53. Proposed American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (approved by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on 26 February 1997, at its 1333rd session, 95th Regular Session), OEA/Ser/L/V/.II.95 Doc.6 (1997).
54. Adopted by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), concluded in Rio de Janeiro on 5 June 1992
55. Concluded in Paris on 17 June 1994
56. Concluded in Rome on 3 November 2001
57. See also the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, adopted at the 33rd Session of the General Conference of UNESCO, 20 October 2005, entered into force 18 March 2007
58. International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV-Convention), 2 December 1961
59. UNCTAD, Protecting and Promoting Traditional Knowledge: Systems, National Experiences and International Dimensions, UNCTAD/DITC/TED/10, November 2004
60. Directive 98/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 July
61. about the Legal Protection of Biotechnical Patents, OJ L 213, 30 July 1998, at p. 13.
62. WTO, Doha Ministerial Declaration, WT/MIN(01)/DEC/1, 20 November 2001, at para. 17.
63. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 17: The Right of Everyone to Benefit from the Protection of the Moral and Material Interests Resulting from Any Scientific, Literary or Artistic Production of Which He Is the Author (Article 15(1)(c)), UN Doc. E/C.12/2005, 21 November 2005; on TCE, see in particular para. 32.
64. For details, see International Court of Environmental Arbitration and Conciliation, Consultative Opinion on the Compatibility Between Certain Provisions of the CBD and the TRIPS as to the Protection of Traditional Knowledge (EAS - OC 8/2003), Rep. Michael Bothe.
65. WIPO, Composite Study on the Protection of Traditional Knowledge, WIPO/GRTKF/IC/5/8, 28 April 2003, at para. 105.
66. Onus v. Alcoa of Australia Ltd., C.L.R. 27 (1981), at p. 149.
67. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, London: Verso, 1991
68. Provisional Act No. 2, 186-16, 23 August 2001, at Article 7(2).
69. Hanns Ullrich, "Traditional Knowledge, Biodiversity, Benefit-Sharing and the Patent System: Romantics v. Economics" (2005) EUI Working Paper 2005/07.
70. See also the Mataatua Declaration on Cultural and Intellectual Property Rights of Indigenous Peoples, June 1993. Para. 2.5 thereof reads: "Develop in full cooperation with indigenous peoples an additional cultural and intellectual property rights regime incorporating the following: collective (as well as individual) ownership and origin, retroactive coverage of historical as well as contemporary works, protection against debasement of culturally significant items, cooperative rather than competitive framework, first beneficiaries to be the direct descendants of the traditional guardians of that knowledge, multi-generational coverage span."
71. See Marc-Antoine Camp, "Wer darf das Lied singen Musikethnologische Anmerkungen zum rechtlichen Status traditioneller Musikkulturen" (2005) sic! - Zeitschrift für Immaterialgüter-, Informations- und Wettbewerbsrecht 9, pp. 307-315.
72. Commission on Human Rights, Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, Working Group on Indigenous Populations, 22nd session, 19-23 July 2004, at p. 5: "Free, prior and informed consent recognizes indigenous peoples' inherent and prior rights to their lands and resources and respects their legitimate authority to require that third parties enter into an equal and respectful relationship with them, based on the principle of informed consent."
73. See Ulrich Brand and Christoph Görg, Postfordistische Naturverhältnisse. Konflikte um genetische Ressourcen und die Internationalisierung des Staates, Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot, 2003, at p. 75.
74. African Model Legislation for the Protection of the Rights of Local Communities, Farmers and Breeders, and for the Regulation of Access to Biological resources, OAU Model Law, Algeria, 2000, available at http://www.wipo.int/tk/en/ laws/pdf/oau_modellaw.pdf.
75. COM(2006) 168 final, 26 April 2006
76. Hence liability regimes regularly refer at the same time to customary law. See Tracy Lewis and Joseph H. Reichman, Using Liability Rules to Stimulate Local Innovation in Developing Countries: ALaw and Economics Primer, unpublished paper, Columbia University Earth Institute, Center on Globalization and Sustainable Development, 15 September 2003; Carlos Correa, Protection and Promotion of Traditional Medicine: Implications for Public Health in Development Countries, Geneva: South Centre, 2002. In the Philippines, the Philippines Indigenous Peoples' Rights Act, Republic Act 8371, § 32 protects, for instance, the rights of indigenous peoples "to the restitution of cultural, intellectual religious, and spiritual property taken without their free and prior informed consent or in violation of their laws, traditions and customs".
77. See lately CBD, Report of the Meeting of the Group of Technical Experts on an Internationally Recognized Certificate of Origin/Source/Legal Provenance, UNEP/CBD/WG-ABS/5/2, 20 February 2007
78. Gregor Kaiser, "Biopiraterie: Der neue Kolonialismus" (2006) Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik 51, pp. 1172-1176, at p. 1175.
79. Rio de Janeiro, June 1992, at http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/ agenda21/english/ agenda21toc.htm.
80. UN, Report of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, A/CONF.199/20, 2002, at Section 44(o).
81. CBD, Draft Decisions of the Eighth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention of Biological Diversity, UNEP/CBD/COP/8/1/Add.2, 1 March 2006, at pp. 48-59.