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Culture As Property: Intellectual Property, Local Norms And Global Rights, Olufunmilayo B. Arewa
Culture As Property: Intellectual Property, Local Norms And Global Rights, Olufunmilayo B. Arewa
Olufunmilayo B. Arewa
Intellectual property frameworks today reflect an increasing emphasis on framing knowledge and culture within a property rights paradigm. This tendency is evident in all sides of current debates about global intellectual property frameworks. Intellectual property frameworks have historically reflected accommodation and balance between local and global influences as well as private and public interests. An ethos of propertization strains both balances. The imbalance between the local and global and public and private is exemplified in current treatment of local knowledge under global intellectual property frameworks. This article examines the tensions between local and global norms, legal and otherwise, and private …
Trips And Traditional Knowledge: Local Communities, Local Knowledge, And Global Intellectual Property Frameworks (Trips Symposium), Olufunmilayo B. Arewa
Trips And Traditional Knowledge: Local Communities, Local Knowledge, And Global Intellectual Property Frameworks (Trips Symposium), Olufunmilayo B. Arewa
Olufunmilayo B. Arewa
Intellectual property treatment of traditional or local knowledge is a major issue of contention today, particularly since the implementation of the TRIPs Agreement, which establishes minimum levels of intellectual property protection for members of the World Trade Organization. Discourse surrounding local knowledge is highly charged with accusations of "piracy" from Western countries countered with allegations of "biopiracy" from Third World countries. Flowing beneath the surface of this dialogue are multiple levels of historical experience. Intellectual property frameworks were formed in the nineteenth century during a period when evolutionary views of the development of human societies were paramount. Local knowledge was …