ABSTRACT
This chapter argues contrariwise that a legal regime that pulls in all of what people might call 'traditional knowledge' is unlikely to ever be agreed and would not deserve to be if it were. It reflects the way the word has been used from the start, is: 'the theft, misappropriation of, or unfair free-riding on, genetic resources and/or traditional knowledge through the patent system; and the unauthorized and uncompensated collection for commercial ends of genetic resources and/or traditional knowledge'. Arguably, this definition might be extended to embrace unfair appropriation through copyright law. Given the North-South slant on the TK debate, which can have the effect of downplaying the claims of specific national subpopulations, some governments seem inclined to treat traditional knowledge to be as much national property as that of minority and indigenous groups.
