LibGuides: Law 797-J: International Intellectual Property: Traditional Knowledge and Cultural Expressions

Traditional Knowledge & Folklore

Formerly called Folklore, WIPO now uses the term "Traditional Knowledge and Cultural Expressions" (TCE).

Intangible Cultural Heritage

Traditional Cultural Expressions and International Intellectual Property Law
While there is no accepted definition of TCE in international law, Dr. Martinet uses this: “tangible and intangible forms in which traditional knowledge and cultures are expressed, communicated or manifested. Examples include traditional music, performances, narratives, names and symbols, designs and architectural forms.”

General Resources

KIVU Guide to Traditional Knowledge Resources
The following are a few of the most important traditional knowledge web sites to be found on the Internet. When searching for information the term “Aboriginal” tends to be used by Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, “Native American” or “Indian” by the United States of America, and “Indigenous” by the rest of the world. This can be helpful in specifying your search.

WIPO

WIPO Traditional Knowledge
Regional, national, local and community experiences regarding intellectual property and genetic resources, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions.

Africa

The Restitution of African Cultural Heritage: Toward a New Relational Ethics
The following report only concerns sub-Saharan Africa. It bears witness to the specificity of the African case and situation and proposes solutions adapted precisely to this very specific case. The report takes into account the history and the particular responsibilities of France throughout this region of the world (administrative supervision and colonial exploitation, failed attempts at decolonization, centralizing political legacies) that are much different than those left by Great Britain, Belgium, Germany, or Italy.

Taiwan

Chinese Traditional Medicine - Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (in Chinese)
Chinese traditional medicine and patent database on "Taiwan Intellectual Property Office" (TIPO)

Books

Intangible cultural heritage in international law by Lixinski, Lucas
Call Number: K3710 .L59 2013

Publication Date: 2013

This book offers a comprehensive analysis of the legal issues around intangible cultural heritage (also known as traditional cultural expressions or folklore). It explores both institutional and substantive responses the law offers to the safeguarding of intangible heritage, relying heavily on critiques internal and external to the law. These external critiques primarily come from the disciplines of anthropology and heritage studies. Intangible cultural heritage is safeguarded on three different levels: international, regional, and national.
Intellectual Property Protection of Traditional Cultural Expressions by Luo Li
Call Number: E-Book

ISBN: 9783319045252

Publication Date: 2014-04-22

The work reviews issues concerning the protection of folklore through the intellectual property legal system, then explores two main issues in the protection of Chinese folklore.
Making and Unmaking Intellectual Property by Mario Biagioli (Editor); Peter Jaszi (Editor); Martha Woodmansee (Editor)
Call Number: KF2979 .M32 2011

ISBN: 9780226907086

Publication Date: 2011-06-01

Rules regulating access to knowledge are no longer the exclusive province of lawyers and policymakers and instead command the attention of anthropologists, economists, literary theorists, political scientists, artists, historians, and cultural critics.
Who Owns Culture? by Susan Scafidi
Call Number: E-Book

ISBN: 0813537851

Publication Date: 2005-05-18

Providing new insights to communal authorship, cultural appropriation, intellectual property law, and the formation of American culture, this innovative and accessible guide greatly enriches future legal understanding of cultural production."