Plants For People: Intellectual Property Rights For Traditional Owners About Plants

DKCRC Working Paper 32

The issue of intellectual property rights over plants is of major concern to Australian Aboriginal people, as it is to Indigenous peoples worldwide. Since traditional knowledge about plants is owned by communities rather than individuals, and customary rights, privileges and responsibilities are assigned through traditional practices, the use of existing legal instruments for protection of intellectual property rights over this traditional knowledge, or the plant resources themselves, is problematic. This paper reviews different strategies for intellectual property protection that could be applied to traditional knowledge about plants and their uses. Customary intellectual property rights systems are discussed and avenues for application of traditional approaches to existing and mainstream intellectual property rights protection systems are explored.

Patents, trademarks, geographical indications, plant breeders’ rights, registries of biodiversity-related knowledge and sui generis approaches to intellectual property rights protection are reviewed, with a specific focus on the protection of traditional plant knowledge.

Recommendations are made for approaches to be used in the engagement of Australian Aboriginal community groups in plant-based projects that will ensure the full participation of the groups in the research, as well as the protection of their traditional knowledge about plants and their uses.

Tags: intellectual property  ethnobotany  Australia  TEK