Indigenous Intellectual Property Rights: Legal Obstacles and Innovative Solutions

by Mary Riley (Editor)

Overview

Riley and her group of expert contributors supply a unique set of worldwide case studies and policy analyses as guidance for indigenous communities and their partners, in attempting to protect their intellectual property. Much of the existing literature already addresses the poor fit between western regimes of intellectual property rights and the requirements for safeguarding indigenous cultural resources. The manuscript gets beyond these negative claims in depicting positive efforts at protecting indigenous knowledge and cultures, notwithstanding these legal limitations. The reader is exposed to a wide array of legal, political, organizational, and contractual strategies deployed by indigenous groups to protect their intellectual property interests. It will be an important resource for social scientists, advocates for indigenous and human rights, bioprospecting, indigenous leaders, NGOs and law libraries.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780759115477
Publisher:	AltaMira Press
Publication date:	08/13/2004
Series:	Contemporary Native American Communities , #10
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	416
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Mary Riley is a Research Associate in the Program for Collaborative Research in the Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Table of Contents

1 Acknowledgments 2 Introduction 3
Chapter I: LEGAL OBSTACLES 4
Chapter 1: As Long As the Grass Grows: Representing Indigenous Claims 5
Chapter 2: Digital Vibes and Radio Waves in Indigenous Peru 6
Chapter 3: Intellectual Property Protection and the Market for Alaska Native Arts and Crafts 7
Chapter 4: The Amerindian Rights Movement in Guyana and Its Influence 8
Chapter II: DEVELOPING INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS 9
Chapter 5: Land, Tenure Systems, and Indigenous Intellectual Property Rights 10
Chapter 6: Benefit-Sharing Under the Convention on Biological Diversity 11
Chapter 7: Ownership of Indigenous Languages: A case study from Guatemala 12
Chapter III: ACCESS AND CONTROL 13
Chapter 8: Intellectual Property Rights and Indigenous Peoples Rights and Responsibilities 14
Chapter 9: Biocolonialism and Isolates of Historic Interest 15
Chapter 10: Indigenous Knowledge and Traditional Plant Resources of the Secwepemc (Shuswap) Nation 16
Chapter 11: Intellectual Property Rights and Indigenous Cultural Heritage in Archaeology 17
Chapter 12: Prior Informed Consent and Bioprospecting Research in Chiapas 18 Index 19 About the Authors

Editorial Reviews

Dr. Mary Riley has edited an extremely timely and indispensable book for understanding the myriad issues impinging upon indigenous intellectual property rights. The legal protection of these intellectual achievements and the ability to control their dissemination by indigenous communities is a problem facing the world's legal and intellectual communities. In a world with a global economy and where local borders are ignored, indigenous property rights are constantly violated and exploited. The challenge is guidance from creative solutions and innovative programs to involve the people whose prior control is ignored. This thoughtful volume is a wonderful textbook for anthropology, business, and legal courses to enable students to propose solutions to local problems that defy easy answers for preserving indigenous knowledge and protecting economic interests of powerless communities.

Richard I. Ford

This book covers much of the enormous range of concerns Native peoples have today about appropriation and alienation of their cultural property and rights.. .. A good source for surveying the breadth of the IPR discourse today.

Tom Greaves

Each chapter demystifies indigenous intellectual property rights and explains why existing laws (attached to Western concepts and contructs) do not legally protect them. More importantly, the authors present actual cases that were resolved with respect to indigenous rights and consideration of their cultural values, beliefs and tradition...There are sufficient examples to assist in finding answers and defining solutions for a wide range of important concerns.

Muse

The Convention on Biological Diversity is now ten years old, and more than a dozen years have passed since Darrell Posey called our attention to the possibility of intellectual property as a tool to benefit indigenous people. In this short time, indigenous people, governments, international agencies, conservationists, and human rights activists have explored different means to achieve the CBD's goal of recognizing the contributions of indigenous people to understanding, utilizing, and conserving biological diversity. We have expanded our search for equitable and effective means to protect a range of traditional knowledge. Indigenous Intellectual Property Rights reflects the broadening and maturing of scholarship about issues surrounding the protection of indigenous knowledge. Although medicinal and other plant knowledge remains central, this book shows that many more types of knowledge are now considered. Most importantly, the essays in Indigenous Intellectual Property Rights provide excellentexamples of how anthropologists and other scholars and activists have confronted the obstacles to such an ambitious agenda. As the world increasingly turns to legal mechanisms to protect people who have been marginalized and exploited for so long, this b

Stephen B. Brush

This kaleidoscopic collection explores legal strategies for defending the artistic and technological creations of indigenous peoples from misuse by outsiders. Each chapter illuminates a different facet of the problem. Together they offer fresh and urgently needed insight into one of the most vexing human-rights problems of the digital age. A superb addition to the required reading list of courses on globalization, intellectual property, and indigenous rights.

Michael F. Brown

This kaleidoscopic collection explores legal strategies for defending the artistic and technological creations of indigenous peoples from misuse by outsiders. Each chapter illuminates a different facet of the problem. Together they offer fresh and urgently needed insight into one of the most vexing human-rights problems of the digital age. A superb addition to the required reading list of courses on globalization, intellectual property, and indigenous rights.--Michael F. Brown, Williams College, author of Who Owns Native Culture?

This book covers much of the enormous range of concerns Native peoples have today about appropriation and alienation of their cultural property and rights. . . . A good source for surveying the breadth of the IPR discourse today.--Tom Greaves, Bucknell University

Dr. Mary Riley has edited an extremely timely and indispensable book for understanding the myriad issues impinging upon indigenous intellectual property rights. The legal protection of these intellectual achievements and the ability to control their dissemination by indigenous communities is a problem facing the world's legal and intellectual communities. In a world with a global economy and where local borders are ignored, indigenous property rights are constantly violated and exploited. The challenge is guidance from creative solutions and innovative programs to involve the people whose prior control is ignored. This thoughtful volume is a wonderful textbook for anthropology, business, and legal courses to enable students to propose solutions to local problems that defy easy answers for preserving indigenous knowledge and protecting economic interests of powerless communities.--Richard I. Ford, University of Michigan

From the Publisher