New Caledonia hosts workshop on trad'l knowledge protection
Pacific Island countries are to consider regional guidelines and model legislation to protect traditional knowledge at a workshop this week in New Caledonia.
The outcomes of the workshop will go before the Pacific Islands Forum Trade Ministers, and the Forum Economic Ministers Meeting, in June this year.
“The trends in global trade are creating a more open world economy, and traditional knowledge provides an information bank for new innovative products and methods of production,” said the Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, Mr. Noel Levi, CBE.
“However, traditional knowledge is outside the scope of standard intellectual property rights protection and presently there are no international treaties that protect traditional knowledge.
“New treaties and laws need to be developed to protect traditional knowledge. Protection can be designed in a way that promotes the preservation of traditional knowledge as well as provide a legal means for compensation when traditional knowledge is used commercially,” Mr. Levi said.
The workshop will for the first time discuss a framework comprising policy guidelines and model legislation, formally known as the Regional Framework for the Legal Protection of Traditional Knowledge and Expressions of Cultures in the Pacific Islands.
At the Forum Trade Ministers Meeting in June 1999, while discussing a paper on Intellectual Property Rights, Forum Ministers noted the absence of any laws in the region that govern access to traditional knowledge and genetic resources. The Ministers mandated the Forum Secretariat to assist members to develop regional guidelines and legal mechanisms for protection of indigenous IPR.
The meeting from Feb. 26-28 is jointly organized by the Forum Secretariat, SPC and UNESCO, and will be held at the SPC headquarters in Noumea, New Caledonia. The Forum Secretariat will be represented by Resources Adviser, Mr. John Low, and International Legal Adviser, Mrs. Andie Fong Toy.
