People, Plants and Patents: The impact of intellectual property on biodiversity, conservation, trade and rural society

This book aims to create an interface between intellectual property and diversity - including cultural, biological, religious, racial, and gender-based diversity. While acknowledging that the historical rationale for intellectual property protection is based on theories of utilitarian incentives and property rights, the authors of this volume assert that the current intellectual property framework is not incompatible with including diversity as part of its objectives. Through its various themes, this book delves into the debate of whether such inclusion can be made possible and how intellectual property norms could be effectively used to protect and promote diversity. In this volume, leading scholars address ongoing regional, national, and international debates within the contexts of diversity, the existing legal framework, and the broader political and economic climate. The authors tackle such wide-ranging topics as the prohibition against trademarking slurs and concepts of intellectual property in ancient Indian texts.

Rules regulating access to knowledge are no longer the exclusive province of lawyers and policymakers and instead command the attention of anthropologists, economists, literary theorists, political scientists, artists, historians, and cultural critics. This burgeoning interdisciplinary interest in “intellectual property” has also expanded beyond the conventional categories of patent, copyright, and trademark to encompass a diverse array of topics ranging from traditional knowledge to international trade. Though recognition of the central role played by “knowledge economies” has increased, there is a special urgency associated with present-day inquiries into where rights to information come from, how they are justified, and the ways in which they are deployed. Making and Unmaking Intellectual Property, edited by Mario Biagioli, Peter Jaszi, and Martha Woodmansee, presents a range of diverse—and even conflicting—contemporary perspectives on intellectual property rights and the contested sources of authority associated with them. Examining fundamental concepts and challenging conventional narratives—including those centered around authorship, invention, and the public domain—this book provides a rich introduction to an important intersection of law, culture, and material production.

Cultural property, aboriginal people, ethnobiology, legal status, laws.

The diversity of methods used and perspectives displayed in intellectual property law scholarship is now quite vast. This book brings together scholars from around the globe to discuss these methods and provide insights into how they are best used.

Detailed and user friendly guide to assist those involved in diversity work to incorporate and develop diversity initiatives in their law firms and corporations.

This book explores how dissimilar patent systems remain distinctive despite international efforts towards harmonization. The dominant historical account describes harmonization as ever-growing, with familiar milestones such as the Paris Convention (1883), the World Intellectual Property Organization's founding (1967), and the formation of current global institutions of patent governance. Yet throughout the modern period, countries fashioned their own mechanisms for fostering technological invention. Notwithstanding the harmonization project, diversity in patent cultures remains stubbornly persistent. No single comprehensive volume describes the comparative historical development of patent practices. Patent Cultures: Diversity and Harmonization in Historical Perspective seeks to fill this gap. Tracing national patenting from imperial expansion in the early nineteenth century to our time, this work asks fundamental questions about the limits of globalization, innovation's cultural dimension, and how historical context shapes patent policy. It is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the contested role of patents in the modern world.

This book examines the social impact of intellectual property laws. It addresses issues and trends relating to health, food security, education, new technologies, preservation of bio-cultural heritage and contemporary challenges in promoting the arts. It explores how intellectual property frameworks could be better calibrated to meet socio-economic needs in countries at different stages of development, with local contexts and culture in mind. A resource for policy-makers, stakeholders, non-profits and students, this volume furthermore highlights alternative modes of innovation that are emerging to address such diverse challenges as neglected or resurgent diseases in developing countries and the harnessing of creative possibilities on the Internet. The collected essays emphasize not only fair access by individuals and communities to intellectual property – protected material, whether a cure, a crop variety, clean technology, a textbook or a tune – but also the enhancement of their own capabilities in cultural participation and innovation.

How do we promote global economic development, while simultaneously preserving local biological and cultural diversity? This authoritative volume, written by leading legal experts and biological and social scientists from around the world, addresses this question in all of its complexity. The first part of the book focuses on biodiversity and examines what we are losing, why and what is to be done. The second part addresses biotechnology and looks at whether it is part of the solution or part of the problem, or perhaps both. The third section examines traditional knowledge, explains what it is and how, if at all, it should be protected. The fourth and final part looks at ethnobotany and bioprospecting and offers practical lessons from the vast and diverse experiences of the contributors.

Riley and her group of expert contributors supply a unique set of worldwide case studies and policy analyses as guidance for indigenous communities and their partners, in attempting to protect their intellectual property. Much of the existing literature already addresses the poor fit between western regimes of intellectual property rights and the requirements for safeguarding indigenous cultural resources. The manuscript gets beyond these negative claims in depicting positive efforts at protecting indigenous knowledge and cultures, notwithstanding these legal limitations. The reader is exposed to a wide array of legal, political, organizational, and contractual strategies deployed by indigenous groups to protect their intellectual property interests.