Protecting the Rights of Traditionally Intellectual: Development of a Sui Generis System to Recognize Access and Benefit Sharing with Indigenous Communities

It has been a topic of serious debate on multiple fronts- whether the right to use traditional knowledge falls in IPR regimes or not? Traditional knowledge consists of information in the public domain as well as trade secrets and one wants to ensure that benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources are shared in a fair and equitable manner among the stakeholders. Despite serious attempts across multiple fora, it has been difficult to develop an international system to protect human knowledge per se. The time has come to move beyond ?talk? of IPR and into ?doing? something about protecting indigenous knowledge and values. This book explores the effectiveness of current IPR mechanisms in protection of traditional knowledge and attempts to propose a sui-generis model- that respects indigenous concerns and rights for global use of traditional wisdom.