THE ROLE OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IN PROTECTING TRADITIONAL

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THE ROLE OF
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
RIGHTS
IN
PROTECTING TRADITIONAL
KNOWLEDGE
The Philippine Experience
Presented by Marga C. Domingo-Morales
Senior Policy and Planning Officer,
Philippine
Department of Agriculture
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• INTRODUCTION

• ISSUES AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• THE PHILIPPINE LEGAL AND POLICY FRAMEWORK

• RECOMMENDED INTERNATIONAL ACTION

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I. INTRODUCTION

• TK consists of the original rights of indigenous
  peoples and local communities over various
  elements
• Plants and genetic resources
• Traditional medicines
• Agricultural methods and local technologies
• Cultural products, etc.
• Since indigenous communities do not have a
  written tradition or culture, recognition of TK
  through a system of IPRs has always been
  difficult and complex

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I. INTRODUCTION

• In the Philippines, there are no existing IPRs on
  TK. There are only measures on how to protect TK
  from use.
• Objective of the Paper
• Provide an overview of the Philippine legal and
  policy framework for the protection of TK and
• Identify key issues and recommendations on the
  role of IPRs on TK based on Philippine
  experience.

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II. PHILIPPINE LEGAL POLICY FRAMEWORK

• Access to Genetic Resources and Sharing of
  Benefits
• Community Rights over Indigenous Knowledge,
  Traditional Medicines, Oral Traditions, etc.
• Documentation and Registration of TK
• Farmers Rights as Breeders

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A. Access to Genetic Resources and Sharing of
Benefits

• Allow bio-prospecting within ancestral lands and
  domains of the indigenous cultural communities
  only with a prior informed consent of such
  communities (EO 247, Indigenous Peoples Rights
  Act, Wildlife Resources Conservation and
  Protection Act)
• Entitle the indigenous community to royalties or
  other forms of compensations which may be
  negotiated in the event that traditional
  varieties are exploited for commercial or
  academic use

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A. Access to Genetic Resources and Sharing of
Benefits

• EO 247 is implemented through the Inter-Agency
  Committee on Biological and Genetic Resources
  (ICBGR)
• Collection of biological resources require
• commercial research agreement
• academic research agreement

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B. Community Rights

• IPRA - promotes the rights of indigenous
  communities to control, develop, and protect
  their sciences, technologies, and cultural
  manifestations, including human, and other
  genetic resources, traditional medicines, vital
  medicinal plants, oral traditions, literature,
  designs, etc.,

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B. Community Rights

• Traditional and Alternatives Medicine Act
  -institutionalizes the ownership by indigenous
  societies of their knowledge of traditional
  medicines. When knowledge is used by outsiders,
  the indigenous societies require the permitted
  users to acknowledge its source and demand a
  financial return that may come from its
  authorized commercial use.

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C. Documentation and Registration of TK

• A continuing process of documenting and making an
  inventory of plant genetic resources and TK
• For PGR - DA launched the National Network on the
  Conservation and Sustainable Use of Plant Genetic
  Resources and designated the National Plant
  Genetic Resources Laboratory (UPLB) as the
  national repository

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C. Documentation and Registration of TK

• For specific crops such as rice, sugar, coconut,
  abaca - other local RD institutions (e.g.
  PhilRice, SRA, PCA, FIDA)
• For cultural products and heritage - National
  Museum
• For inventions, industrial designs, and utility
  models - Intellectual Property Office
• For traditional medicines - Philippine Institute
  of Traditional and Alternative Health Care

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D. Farmers Rights as Breeders

• No specific law in the Philippines that offers
  IPR protection for innovations concerning plant
  varieties
• Philippine Intellectual Property Code provides
  that new plant varieties and animal breeds can
  not be covered by patents
• However, IP Code provides for the enactment of a
  sui generis protection of plant varieties and
  animal breeds and/or system of community
  intellectual rights protection for this purpose

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D. Farmers Rights as Breeders

• Pending Plant Variety Protection (PVP) Bill

• Acknowledges the role of farmers in improving
  seeds through selection in the grant of farmers
  privilege to save, use, exchange, and sell seeds
• Encourages farming communities to establish their
  respective local registry system to register or
  build an inventory of locally-bred varieties
• Directs the PVP Registrar to institutionalize,
  maintain, and continuously update a database of
  existing or commonly/publicly known plant
  varieties in the Philippines

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III. ISSUES AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• Regulate access to biological genetic resources
  for our peoples benefits.
• Complement regulations with an up to date
  inventory or registration system of TK.

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III. ISSUES AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• Acknowledge the role of farmers in improving
  breeds and the rights of indigenous communities
  over TK.
• Strengthen IPR systems to recognize the more
  informal, communal system of innovation.

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IV. RECOMMENDED INTERNATIONAL ACTION

• Continue regional discussion to establish a
  common framework that will regulate access to
  local biodiversity and genetic resources.
• Develop a model law to provide for the protection
  of community intellectual rights.
• Provide technical assistance for the institution
  building mechanisms in the protection of TK, the
  setting up of a documentation and registration
  system for informal innovations, among others.

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THANK YOU !!!