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ARTICLE · 22 APRIL 2013

Traditional Knowledge

ENS
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The government feels that traditional knowledge should be legally protected, and that this should be achieved through amendments to the intellectual property statutes.

South AfricaIntellectual Property
Rachel Sikwane
Rachel Sikwane
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Traditional knowledge (TK), for example folklore, is a controversial issue and we’ve written about it before. The government feels that TK should be legally protected, and that this should be achieved through amendments to the intellectual property (IP) statutes. The IP community has no issue with TK being protected, but it’s not very comfortable with this being done through IP legislation. It feels that TK is far removed from laws which give limited monopoly rights as a reward for creativity or inventiveness. A particular problem is that our IP laws are closely aligned to the IP laws of most other countries - thus allowing for reciprocal protection for IP - and it’s felt that if our IP laws suddenly start providing protection for things that are not protected elsewhere, there may be problems.

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