ABSTRACT
The previous chapter considered in detail the conflict between community resources, traditional knowledge, and intellectual property models of protection, arguing that conventional intellectual property regimes do not accommodate ongoing cultural preservation in a model where private property rights and monopolies serve as the fundamental framework. Nevertheless, intellectual property remains the key platform upon which the question of international protection is being negotiated. The discussions of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC) are considered in detail in this chapter in order to examine the potential for protection within intellectual property frameworks, and the discussions towards achieving real public, political, and economic effect for customary laws and management within that protection.1 The following chapter will continue to address the intellectual property paradigm, and will consider strategies that negotiate intellectual property laws in order to achieve “communal” models of access to knowledge, particularly in the context of new technologies.
