Owning Knowledge: Western Intellectual Property Regimes and Traditional Knowledge

Lecture held 6th of Octber 2012 on Law Forum at the University of Akureyri.

In her lecture, Rachael will examine the principal internationally accepted concepts of intellectual property law (copyright, patent, design and trade secret) and their interaction with traditional knowledge, in particular, the knowledge of indigenous peoples. She will evaluate the core provisions of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (1971) and the World Trade Organisation’s Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) (1994) demonstrating their incompatibility with the rights of indigenous peoples. Rachael concludes that on the one hand, the Western models fail to protect the rights of the original creators and holders of traditional and indigenous knowledge. On the other hand, the Western models facilitate the theft of traditional and indigenous knowledge by granting Western entities exclusive rights over knowledge that they have derived from indigenous communities.

Rachael Lorna Johnstone is associate professor of law at the University of Akureyri, Iceland where she has been based since 2003. She has a doctorate in law from the University of Toronto (2004), a masters in law from the European Academy of Legal Theory, Brussels (2000) and an undergraduate degree in law with honours from the University of Glasgow (1999). Rachael is currently enrolled in the masters programme in Polar Law at the University of Akureyri. Her main research interests are international law, polar law, human rights and comparative law.