[At-Large] Traditional Cultural Expressions #ICANN #WIPO

Salanieta T. Tamanikaiwaimaro salanieta.tamanikaiwaimaro at gmail.com
Wed Jan 29 21:17:41 UTC 2014


Dear All,

Some of you may remember the *ALAC statement on Community Priority
Evaluation Guidelines* that was unanimously passed. There are certain
developments within on moves to protect Traditional Cultural Expressions
through WIPO etc. To see the developments in WIPO and the Draft Articles in
this area, in English, Spanish, French and Russian, visit:
http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/doc_details.jsp?doc_id=245543

As you can imagine, the At Large community has many people who have an
interest in this space either from community based concerns in the
protection of such expressions etc.

A little known fact is that Vanda Scartazeni used to head and manage
Brazil's equivalent of the United States Trademark and Patent Office
(USPTO). There are others in the At Large community who have been involved
in various Intellectual Property linked matters such as Hong and Seth etc.
Instead of always being reactionary to public policy debates and dialogue,
it is critical that issues such as Traditional Cultural Expressions and
protections in the wake of lack of appropriate mechanisms be protected as
captured within the spirit of the Statement of the ALAC.

Strategies should be deployed within At Large  on how to best protect
them. Care
should be taken to protect "traditional knowledge" and "indigenous
communities" that may not have the technological savvy to navigate the
systems effectively.

For example, should Louis Vuitton decide to apply for .maasai and where a
Maasai Elder is in the process of protecting their traditional name. Ron
Layton of Light Years IP argues that the Maasai brand is worth $10million.
See: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22617001

 Intellectual Property and Traditional cultural expressions have been the
subject of global discussions as early as 1967 when there was an amendment
to the *Berne Convention for the Protection of Artistic and Literary
Works*for the protection of unpublished and anonymous works.

Best Regards,
Sala



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