From the Shaman's Hut to the Patent Office

This chapter ¹ takes stock of what has been done in recent years to build the road from the shaman’s hut to the patent office. The purpose of this chapter is not to describe in detail the many multilateral debates held in various intergovernmental organizations such as the World trade Organization (WTO), ² the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), ³ the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), ⁴ the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), ⁵ but rather to look at the evolution of legal concepts and strategies aiming at providing effective protection for traditional knowledge (TK). Because the legal concepts around TK have been more deeply examined in the context of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Intergovernmental Committee’ or simply ‘the Committee’), this chapter will look more attentively to that particular forum. ⁶