INTERNATIONAL LEGISLATIONS AND BEST PRACTICES FOR TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE PROTECTION
AUTHOR – DISHA JOSHI, STUDENT AT UNITEDWORLD SCHOOL OF LAW, KARNAVATI UNIVERSITY
BEST CITATION – DISHA JOSHI, INTERNATIONAL LEGISLATIONS AND BEST PRACTICES FOR TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE PROTECTION, INDIAN JOURNAL OF LEGAL REVIEW (IJLR), 5 (5) OF 2025, PG. 657-660, APIS – 3920 – 0001 & ISSN – 2583-2344.
Overview of Intellectual Property
Intellectual property embodies various creation of the mind or the human intellect. These include inventions, literary and artistic works, designs, symbols, et cetera, generally used in trade. These are referred to as intangible assets, and require legal protection in most cases, which helps in recognizing and granting creators with exclusive rights to control the use of their creation and its commercial exploitation as well. Thus, it can be said that intellectual property rights widely deal with the exclusivity of use and monetary gains arising at the behest of the creation. Intellectual property arises from huma creativity and ingenuity, which generally represents original thought, effort, and skill. To give a basic understanding of the subject, IP is primarily divided into two segments: industrial property and non-industrial property[1]. The former, as the name suggests, concerns itself with application in any industry with commercial application, focusing on protecting inventions, brands, and designs used in industry and commerce. This includes mechanisms like patent protection for invention, trademarks for brand recognition, industrial design for product aesthetic and appeal, and geographical indication for products originating from a specific geographical location. Slightly contrary to this, non-industrial intellectual property, majorly referred to as copyright, lays emphasis on protecting artistic and literary work. This consists of a variety of creative expressions like books, music, films, paintings, dance, folks, performing arts, et cetera. The primary aim of both the types is to protect intellectual creations, however, they differ in the types of subject matter which they protect and the specific rights that the creator or owner of such work is conferred with. This includes the term of protection, the extent of exclusivity of use, assignment and transfer of rights, renewals of the respective IP, what constitutes as an infringement, remedies for their infringement, and so on. In this introductory chapter, the major types of IP are briefly explained.
[1] WIPO https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo_pub_895_2016.pdf