The work reviews issues concerning the protection of folklore through the intellectual property legal system, then explores two main issues in the protection of Chinese folklore. The first issue is the influence of Chinese traditional culture on the Chinese intellectual property legal system and Chinese society. The second concerns the deficiencies of the Chinese intellectual property system with regard to folklore. Both issues are examined through a survey on the weak public recognition of intellectual property law and folklore in Chinese society. The book also reveals the practical issues that have arisen in Southwest China through case studies. After analysing these issues, the work designs a model law specifically for folklore and also provides suggestions for how the current intellectual property legal system could establish a comprehensive legal protection system for folklore. Furthermore, the work shows that its proposed model law is effective in practice by resolving the issues in the case studies presented.

This is one of a series of Booklets dealing with intellectual property and genetic resources, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions/folklore.

..This Guide intends to provide information for policy-makers, heads of intellectual property (IP) offices, and other decision-makers in countries in transition, on issues they need to consider before putting a legal framework in place. It aims to raise awareness of existing methods for the legal protection of traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, as well as to improve understanding of the interrelations, at international, regional and national levels, between the IP system, on the one hand, and traditional knowledge/traditional cultural expressions and their implications for economic, social, cultural and technical development, on the other hand.

This book is a very significant contribution to the question of protecting traditional cultural expressions. . . It is filled with fascinating ideas and perspectives that challenge the reader to rethink the law once again. Jamil Ammar, European Intellectual Property Review Legal protection for traditional cultural expressions is an area of contemporary policy making characterized by widespread concern and considerable controversy. Intellectual property scholars have a dire need for informed perspectives on the history of this subject area and the lucid commentary on its social and political implications that the authors of these cogent interdisciplinary essays provide. This impressive volume promises to be quickly acknowledged as an indispensable guide to the issues in this field. Rosemary J. Coombe, York University, Canada The first wave of scholarship on cultural appropriation was often better at denunciation than at grappling with the complexities of cultural heritage and its protection. Intellectual Property and Traditional Cultural Expressions in a Digital Environment launches a second wave: nuanced, interdisciplinary, looking past accusation toward flexible solutions. For all that, it is no less committed to social justice. By bringing together leading-edge scholarship from law, the arts, communications, anthropology, history, and philosophy, the editors have taken research on heritage protection to the next level of sophistication. Michael F. Brown, Williams College, US and author of Who Owns Native Culture? In the face of increasing globalisation, and a collision between global communication systems and local traditions, this book offers innovative trans-disciplinary analyses of the value of traditional cultural expressions (TCE) and suggests appropriate protection mechanisms for them. It combines approaches from history, philosophy, anthropology, sociology and law, and charts previously untravelled paths for developing new policy tools and legal designs that go beyond conventional copyright models. Its authors extend their reflections to a consideration of the specific features of the digital environment, which, despite enhancing the risks of misappropriation of traditional knowledge and creativity, may equally offer new opportunities for revitalising indigenous peoples values and provide for the sustainability of TCE. This book will appeal to scholars interested in multidisciplinary analyses of the fragmentation of international law in the field of intellectual property and traditional cultural expressions. It will also be valuable reading for those working on broader governance and human rights issues.

General information on the interface between intellectual property (IP) and traditional knowledge (TK), traditional cultural expressions (TCEs), and genetic resources (GRs). It briefly addresses the most important questions that arise when considering the role that IP principles and systems can play in protecting TK and TCEs from misappropriation, and in generating and equitably sharing benefits from their commercialization, and the role of IP in access to and benefit sharing in GRs.

This Guide intends to provide information for policy-makers, heads of intellectual property (IP) offices, and other decision-makers in countries in transition, on issues they need to consider before putting a legal framework in place. It aims to raise awareness of existing methods for the legal protection of traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, as well as to improve understanding of the interrelations, at international, regional and national levels, between the IP system, on the one hand, and traditional knowledge/traditional cultural expressions and their implications for economic, social, cultural and technical development, on the other hand.

This publication is part of a series of background papers prepared by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) dealing with intellectual property issues in relation to genetic resources, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions/ folklore. It is intended to provide a comprehensive analysis of the policy issues that arise in the debate over improved intellectual property protection of TCEs/folklore, as an information resource for policy makers, negotiators, legislators, indigenous and traditional communities, users of traditional cultural expressions/folklore, researchers and others interested in exploring these issues in detail.