"It's a small world (after all)": Some reflections on intellectual property and traditional cultural expressions

Intellectual Property and Traditional Cultural Expressions in a Digital Environment

Volumn , Issue , 2008, Pages 150-181

  Wendland, Wend B ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND   (South Africa)

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EID: 84881926789     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book    
DOI: None     Document Type: Chapter

References (73)

1. In intellectual property discussions a distinction is usually drawn between the content or substance of traditional knowledge per se (traditional knowledge stricto sensu, "TK") and the tangible and intangible forms in which such knowledge is expressed, communicated or manifested (traditional cultural expressions, or "expressions of folklore", "TCE"). This distinction is criticized as artificial, as it certainly is in relation to the daily life of indigenous peoples in which technical know-how and artistic expressions form part of an integrated unitary heritage. However, the distinction facilitates an IP analysis of the issues and does not detract from the holism of knowledge and artistic expressions in the daily lives of indigenous peoples. WIPO's work on TK and TCE is closely complementary and coordinated.
2. James Tunney, "EU, IP, Indigenous People and the Digital Age: Intersecting Circles" (1998) European Intellectual Property Review 20:9, pp. 335-346, at p. 335.
3. Erica-Irene Daes, Special Rapporteur of the (then) Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities and Chair of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations, Study on the Protection of the Cultural and Intellectual Property of Indigenous Peoples, E/CN.4/Sub.2/1993/28, 28 July 1993, at para. 22.
4. Michael Dodson, Special Rapporteur and Member of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Report of the Secretariat on Indigenous Traditional Knowledge, E/C.19/2007/10, 20 March 2007, at p. 8. See also, generally, Terri Janke, Our Culture, Our Future: Report on Australian Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property Rights, Sydney: Michael Frankel and Company, 1998; Australian Copyright Council (ACC), Protecting Indigenous Intellectual Property, Sidney: ACC, 1998; Susan Scafidi, "Intellectual Property and Cultural Products" (2001) Boston University Law Review 81:4, pp. 793-842; Christine Haight Farley, "Protecting Folklore of Indigenous Peoples: Is Intellectual Property the Answer" (1997) Connecticut Law Review 30:1, pp. 1-58.
5. Available at http://www.wipo.int/tk/en/folklore/creative_heritage/indigenous/ link0002.html.
6. Michael Brown, "Can Culture Be Copyrighted" (1998) Current Anthropology 39:2, pp. 193-222.
7. Statement by American Folklore Society to the Fourth Session of the WIPO IGC, available at http://www.wipo.int/tk/en/igc/ngo/afsstatement.pdf.
8. Lyndel V. Prott, "An International Legal Instrument for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage" in Claus Dieter Classen, Armin Dittmann, Frank Fechner, Ulrich M. Gassner and Michael Kilian (eds), In einem vereinten Europa dem Frieden der Welt zu dienen. Liber amicorum Thomas Oppermann, Berlin: Duncker and Humblot, 2001, pp. 657-686, at pp. 666 and 667.
9. Dorothy Noyes, "The Judgment of Solomon: Global Protections for Tradition and the Problem of Community Ownership" (2006) Cultural Analysis 5, pp. 27-56, at pp. 28 and 31.
10. Rosemary Coombe, "The Properties of Culture and the Possession of Identity: Postcolonial Struggle and the Legal Imagination" in Bruce Ziff and Pratima V. Rao (eds), Borrowed Power: Essays on Cultural Appropriation, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1997, pp. 74-96, at p. 85, quoted by Elizabeth Burns Coleman in this volume.
11. WIPO, WIPO Program and Budget 1998-1999: Main Program 11, available at http://www.wipo.int/documents/en/document/govbody/wo_gb_ab/prg11.htm.
12. Wend Wendland, "Intellectual Property and the Protection of Cultural Expressions: The Work of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)" in Molengraaf Institute for Private Law, Centre for Intellectual Property Law (CIER), Molengrafica Series, Utrecht: CIER, 2002
13. WIPO, Records of the Intellectual Property Conference of Stockholm, 11 June-14 July 1967, Geneva: WIPO, 1971, at paras. 126, 127, 249-253.
14. For the immediate origins of the establishment of the IGC, see WIPO, Matters Concerning Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore - An Overview, WIPO/GRTKF/IC/1/3, 16 March 2001, at paras. 23-28.
15. See WIPO, Consolidated Analysis of the Legal Protection of Traditional Cultural Expressions/Expressions of Folklore, Geneva: WIPO, 2003, at pp. 35-55 and Annex. See also WIPO TCE Laws Database, available at http://www.wipo.int/tk/en/ laws/folklore.html.
16. WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT), adopted in Geneva, 20 December 1996
17. Malia Talakai, "Tongan Cultural Expressions and Its Intellectual Property Challenges: Findings from a Survey on Intellectual Property and Safeguarding Cultural Heritage in the South Pacific and from PhD Dissertation Fieldwork in Tonga", Presentation made at Tonga Research Association Conference, Nuku'Alofa, Tonga, July 2007, available at http://www.wipo.int/tk/en/folklore/culturalheritage/resources. html.
18. Luz Celeste Rios de Davis, "Regimen especial de derechos colectivas indigenas", Presentation made at the Fourth Session of the WIPO IGC, 9-17 December 2002, WIPO/GRTKF/IC/4/INF/4, 29 November 2002
19. "Defining Fiji's Art", Living in Fiji, September-November 2006
20. See http://www.toiiho.com.
21. Aroha Mead, "Emerging Issues in Maori Traditional Knowledge, Can These Be Addressed by UN Agencies", Paper delivered at International Technical Workshop on Indigenous Traditional Knowledge, organized by the Interagency Support Group on Indigenous Issues and UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Panama City, Panama, 21-23 September 2005, available at http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/ documents/workshop_TK_mead.pdf.
22. GRULAC (Group of Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean), Position Paper submitted to the IGC, WIPO/GRTKF/IC/1/5, 16 March 2001, Annex II, at p. 2.
23. Rosemary Coombe, Steven Schnoor and Mosen Ahmed, "Bearing Cultural Distinction: Informational Capitalism and New Expectations for Intellectual Property" (2007) University of California Davis Law Review 40:3, pp. 891-918, at p. 892.
24. An earlier version of this specific section appeared as Wend Wendland, "WIPO's Work on Traditional Knowledge, Genetic Resources and Traditional Cultural Expressions - Taking Stock of Developments to Date and an Assessment of Options for Future Progress" in Indigenous Peoples' Centre for Documentation, Research and Information (doCip), Update 76, Geneva: doCip, 2007, pp. 14-18
25. The draft provisions are enclosed at the end of this volume in Annex 1. They are contained unaltered in the Annex of documents WIPO/GRTKF/IC/8/4, 8 April 2005, 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
26. considered by the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources and Folklore at its Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Sessions. Committee members have expressed diverse views on the acceptability of this material as a basis for future work, in particular regarding certain passages of Part III: Substantive Principles.
27. See also Martin A. Girsberger's contribution to this volume.
28. The List of Issues regarding TCE is provided at the end of this volume in Annex 2. For the full Lists of Issues, and other decisions taken by the IGC's Tenth Session, see WIPO, Decisions of the Tenth Session of the Committee, 30 November-8 December 2006, Geneva, available at http://www.wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/tk/en/ wipo_grtkf_ic_10/wipo_grtkf_ic_10_decisions.doc.
29. The comments on the TCE List of Issues are available in WIPO documents WIPO/GRTKF/IC/11/4(a), 30 April 2007, WIPO/GRTKF/IC/11/4(a) Add., 26 June 2007, and WIPO/GRTKF/IC/11/4(a) Add.2, 3 July 2007. The comments on the TK List of Issues are available in documents WIPO/GRTKF/IC/11/5(a), 19 May 2007, WIPO/GRTKF/IC/11/5(a) Add., 28 June 2007, and WIPO/GRTKF/IC/11/5(a) Add.2, 3 July 2007. The comments are also displayed electronically in tabular form at http://www.wipo.int/tk/en/igc/issues.html.
30. The decisions of the IGC's Eleventh Session are available at http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/doc_details.jspdoc_id=81852.
31. Such as documents WIPO/GRTKF/IC/5/3, 2 May 2003, and WIPO/GRTKF/IC/6/3, 1 December 2003 (TCE), and WIPO/GRTKF/IC/6/4, 12 December 2003 (TK)
32. Documents WIPO/GRTKF/IC/7/3, 20 August 2004 (TCE), and WIPO/GRTKF/IC/7/5, 20 August 2004 (TK)
33. WIPO/GRTKF/IC/8/4, 8 April 2005 (TCE), and WIPO/GRTKF/IC/8/5, 8 April 2005 (TK)
34. See decisions of the IGC's Eighth Session at http://www. wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/tk/en/wipo_grtkf_ic_8/wipo_grtkf_ic_8_decisions.doc.
35. WIPO/GRTKF/IC/9/4, 9 January 2006 (TCE) and WIPO/GRTKF/IC/9/5, 9 January 2006 (TK)
36. Documents WIPO/GRTKF/IC/10 INF 2, 29 September 2006, WIPO/GRTKF/IC/10 INF 2 Add., 26 October 2006, WIPO/GRTKF/IC/10 INF 2 Add.2, 24 November 2006, and WIPO/GRTKF/IC/10 INF/3, 2 October 2006.
37. WIPO, Intellectual Property Needs and Expectations of Traditional Knowledge Holders: Report on Fact-finding Missions on Intellectual Property and Traditional Knowledge (1998-1999), Geneva: WIPO, 2001
38. Duncan Matthews, NGOs, Intellectual Property Rights and Multilateral Institutions, London: Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute, 2006, at pp. 29-30; South Centre and Centre for International Environmental Law (CIEL), "The Proposed WIPO Framework on Traditional Knowledge: Does It Meet Indigenous Peoples' Demands" (2007) Intellectual Property Quarterly Update, pp. 1-20, at p. 2.
39. For further information on the accreditation procedure, see http://www.wipo.int/tk/ en/igc/index.html#accreditation. Details of the Fund, its operation, and the application procedure, are fully set out at http://www.wipo.int/ tk/en/ngoparticipation/ voluntary_fund/index.html.
40. WIPO, Matters Concerning the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore, WO/GA/32/7
41. July 2005, at p. 1.
42. WIPO, Decisions of the Eleventh Session of the Committee, 3-13 July 2007, Geneva, available at http://www.wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/tk/en/wipo_grtkf_ic_11/wipo_ grtkf_ic_11_www_81852.doc.
43. All the reports, documents and other publications referred to in the article are available from the WIPO Secretariat, and on the WIPO website at http://www.wipo.int/tk/en. All are available in English, French and Spanish, and some also in Arabic, Chinese and Russian.
44. Bandung Declaration, available as WIPO document WIPO/GRTKF/IC/11/12
45. June 2007
46. South Africa, Indigenous Knowledge Systems Policy, also published as WIPO/GRTKF/IC/9/11, 2 March 2006
47. See Martin A. Girsberger's contribution to this volume.
48. See documents WIPO/GRTKF/IC/5/6, 14 May 2003, and WIPO/GRTKF/ IC/11/7, 6 June 2007
49. See the references at http://www.wipo.int/tk/en/tk.
50. Anil K. Gupta, WIPO-UNEP Study on the Role of Intellectual Property Rights in the Sharing of Benefits Arising from the Use of Biological Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge, Geneva: WIPO and UNEP, 2004.
51. Document WIPO/GRTKF/IC/5/5, 1 April 2003
52. Document WIPO/GRTKF/IC/4/14, 6 December 2002
53. See WIPO's Creative Heritage Project at http://www.wipo.int/tk/en/folklore/ culturalheritage/index.html. With regard to the use of new technologies by indigenous communities, which the Creative Heritage Project seeks to support through IP advice, see Mira Burri-Nenova's contribution to this volume.
54. See http://www.wipo.int/tk/en/databases/contracts.
55. Jane Anderson, "Access and Control of Indigenous Knowledge in Libraries and Archives: Ownership and Future Use", Paper for Correcting Course: Rebalancing Copyright for Libraries in the National and International Arena American Library Association and the MacArthur Foundation, Columbia University, New York, 5-7 May 2005, at p. 19.
56. See Valdimar T. Hafstein, "The Politics of Origins: Collective Creation Revisited" (2004) Journal of American Folklore 117:465, pp. 300-315.
57. Paper issued by AFS at Fourth Committee Session. See also Article 8 UNESCO Declaration on Cultural Diversity of November 2001.
58. See generally the discussions at "Folklore, Aesthetic Ecologies and Public Domain", University of Pennsylvania, 2-3 April 2004 and the Eighth Congress of Société Internationale d'Ethnologie et de Folklore/Third Congress Association d'Anthropologie Mediterraneenne, Marseille, 28 April 2004; personal communications with, amongst others, Dorothy Noyes, Associate Professor of Folklore, Ohio State University and Valdimar Hafstein, Researcher, Reykjavik Academy, Iceland and Adjunct Lecturer in Ethnology and Folklore, University of Iceland
59. For example, discussions with Professor Edi Sedyawati and others at National Consultation Forum on Intellectual Property and Traditional Knowledge and Cultural Expressions/Folklore, Indonesia, 30 November-1 December 2004 (notes on file with author) and UNESCO Expert Meeting on "Inventorying Cultural Heritage", Paris, 17-18 March 2005 (notes on file with author)
60. Intervention of Canada at IGC, 11 July 2007, as reported in WIPO/GRTKF/IC/11/15 Prov., 15 October 2007, at para. 146.
61. See WIPO/GRTKF/IC/5/3, 2 May 2003, at paras. 22-33.
62. See Jessica Litman, "The Public Domain" (1990) Emory Law Journal 39:4, pp. 965-1024. See also Rosemary Coombe, "Fear, Hope, and Longing for the Future of Authorship and a Revitalized Public Domain in Global Regimes of Intellectual Property" (2003) DePaul Law Review 52:4, pp. 1171-1192; and Raquel de Roman Perez, "Comparison between the Public Domain System and the Model of the WIPO Draft Provisions for the Protection of Traditional Cultural Expressions/Expressions of Folklore" (2007) Revue Internationale du Droit d'Auteur 212, pp. 67-103.
63. See William van Caenegem, "The Public Domain: Scientia Nullius" (2002) European Intellectual Property Review 24:6, pp. 324-330.
64. For instance, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, Italy, Netherlands, Honduras, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation and Vietnam
65. Tulalip Tribes' position reproduced in WIPO/GRTKF/IC/5/15, 4 August 2003, at pp. 27-28.
66. See Ulrich Uchtenhagen, "Protection of Adaptations and Collections of Expressions of Folklore", National Symposium on the Legal Protection of Expressions of Folklore, Beijing, 13-15 September 1993
67. For example, comments of European Community and its Member States and Canada on WIPO document WIPO/GRTKF/IC/4/3, 20 October 2002
68. Tulalip Tribes, Statement to the Fifth Session of the WIPO IGC, July 2003, available at http://www.wipo.int/tk/en/igc/ngo/tulaliptribes.pdf.
69. See e.g. Adelphi Charter at http://www.adelphicharter.org.
70. Tony Vetter and Eddan Katz, "Access to Knowledge in the Information Society", Draft for Discussion, International Institute for Sustainable Development, September 2007, at p. 4.
71. Jane Anderson and Kathy Bowrey, "The Imaginary Politics of Access to Knowledge: Whose Cultural Agendas are Being Advanced" draft, on file with author, at p. 11; published in a revised version in (2006) Australasian Intellectual Property Law Resources 13.
72. Margaret Raven, "Rethinking the Public Domain: A Challenge for Knowledge-Sharing Societies in the Information Age" (2005) Work in Progress 17:2, pp. 22-23, at p. 23.
73. Written in 1964 by Robert and Richard Sherman