Creative Indigenous artists who have been demanding the right to prevent their art, songs, stories and traditional knowledge, where there lies an undisputable cultural connection, is set to be protected from being appropriated.
Intellectual property laws have been considered inadequate for decades over safeguarding Indigenous cultural and intellectual property.
But a resolution to form a treaty from a United Nations-agency, the World Intellectual Property Organisation on genetic resources, intellectual property and traditional knowledge for First Nations people was finalised and agreed upon earlier this year.
The treaty that was developed at the UN’s agency’s diplomatic conference in Geneva aimed to “enhance the efficacy, transparency and quality of the patent system” and “prevent patents from being granted erroneously for inventions that are not novel or inventive with regard to genetic resources and Traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources”.
Australia is preparing to take steps towards developing Federal laws on Indigenous cultural and intellectual property, which will particularly address fake art relating to appropriation of knowledge and cultural expression.
Solicitor Dr Terri Janke travelled to Switzerland as special adviser to Australia’s Ambassador to First Nations Peoples, Justin Mohamed, to deliver a legal perspective.
The Wuthathi/Yadhaigana and Meriam woman feels the treaty will shape future international framework for recognising and protecting traditional knowledge and its cultural expression.
“The successful outcome of the conference reflects the important steps the international community is making towards recognising the deep and profound knowledge held by Indigenous Peoples,” she intimated in a recent Terri Janke and Company blog.
Janke, an international authority on the matter, has extensively advised on Indigenous cultural and intellectual property protocols and models for various sectors of the community.
A central element of the treaty is a mandatory disclosure requirement for patents relating to genetic resources and their associated traditional knowledge.
Innovators filing their patent application will have to disclose the country of origin or the source of the genetic resource, should the invention be materially based on that resource.
When the invention is based on traditional knowledge, they would have to disclose their Indigenous peoples or local community that provided such knowledge or, at least, of its source.
The patent disclosure requirement essentially creates an internationally agreed measure to ensure non-Indigenous people and companies do not patent ideas or methods that are not theirs to claim, while acknowledging Indigenous cultural and intellectual property is held within the community that traditionally engaged in the method.
Dr Janke is set to share her vision for future legal protection of Indigenous cultural and intellectual property for the Francis Gurry lecture series on intellectual property.
Tickets to attend are free, however pre-bookings at the MLS Building, Woodward Conference Centre, Level 10 in Carlton on Tuesday or at 31 Alfred St in Sydney’s Circular Quay on Wednesday from 5:30pm is essential.
The lectures will also be streamed online.