Traditional knowledge and intellectual property rights in Asia: Global agendas, local subjects.

A joint seminar by
Centre for Comparative Law and Development Studies in Asia and the Pacific
and
Faculty of Law.

Professor Christoph Antons

Wednesday, 27 August 2008
Room: 67.202 (moot court)
Time: 12.30-13.30pm

Abstract:

The paper examines case studies of conflicting discourses about the relationship between traditional knowledge and intellectual property rights from developing Asia. In line with the "holistic" understanding of traditional knowledge advocated by indigenous communities, it departs from a broad definition of the term, which includes not only knowledge related to biodiversity, agriculture and medicine, but also traditional cultural and artistic expressions used to transmit the knowledge. The paper gives examples for the debate at the national level, but it also shows competing visions of the various United Nations organisations involved in the discussion. The paper will conclude with a few examples of how global standards and new development paradigms have been implemented at the national and grassroots level and what problems this implementation is raising.

Biographical note:

Christoph Antons is Professor of Comparative Law and Director of the Centre for Comparative Law and Development Studies in Asia and the Pacific (CLDSAP) at the University of Wollongong. He is a QEII Fellow of the Australian Research Council (ARC), Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCi), Adjunct Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law in Munich and Honorary Senior Fellow in the Faculty of Law at the University of Melbourne. His book publications are "Intellectual Property Law in Indonesia" (Kluwer 2000), "Law and Development in East and Southeast Asia" (RoutledgeCurzon 2003), "Intellectual Property Harmonisation within ASEAN and APEC" (Kluwer 2004, co-edited with Michael Blakeney and Christopher Heath) and "Globalisation and Resistance: Law Reform in Asia since the Crisis" (Hart 2007, co-edited with Volkmar Gessner).