Can culture be patented for tourism?

(Part 2)

Stephen Ephraem

IN the previous episode, we looked at the similarities and differences of patent, copyright and trademark and how communities and people have failed to patent their cultural products.

In this article, we want to answer if communities can patent their culture for tourism purpose.

Cultural products like music, medicine, dances, art, craft, food, folklore, traditional knowledge and names, are marketable to cultural tourists and can be regarded as some of a community or a people’s social identity. These products are handed down generations.

Elderly people of society habitually expect the young generation to guard against their culture the way inventors guard against their products by officially obtaining legal patent rights from sovereign states.

Communities don’t acquire legal protection of their products, but educate their off-springs to safeguard their culture.

Due to lack of patent rights, third parties usually derive new products without prior consent from unpatented cultural products. The “new inventions” are then patented, copyrighted or trademarked. The main problem lies with the lack of a cultural product protection framework even at international level up to this day.

During the Twenty Session of Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC) held in Geneva in July 2014, World Intellectual Property Organisation suggested that it was essentially important for indigenous people and local communities to have scientific value of their traditional knowledge system.

IGC laid out objectives that include affording indigenous people or communities with legal and practical means to prevent the misappropriation of their traditional knowledge (agriculture, environment, medical knowledge, traditional lifestyles, natural resources and heritable resources). It also outlined that it is vital to promote the equitable sharing of benefits arising from their use with prior informed consent or approval and involvement.

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