Should indigenous peoples seek intellectual property protection? What are the alternatives?
York Centre for Public Policy and Law
Finding ways of ‘protecting’ the knowledge and heritage of indigenous peoples has become a significant issue in international law and policy-making, engaging numerous United Nations bodies (the Biodiversity Convention, WIPO, UNCTAD, UNESCO, WTO as well as the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples), NGOs and indigenous activists. Three scholars from anthropology, law, and political science will critically consider the motives, interests, agencies and politics that drive this field of international activity and explain the research of the networks of scholars who explore this field and collaborate with indigenous peoples.
This symposium featured Catherine Bell, Rosemary Coombe and Patricia Goff, and was co-sponsored by the IPinCH Working Group on Customary, Conventional and Vernacular Legal Forms and the York Centre for Public Policy and the Law.
