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The expression Indigenous Caucus (or Caucus of Indigenous Peoples) refers to informal groups of Indigenous peoples representatives with ad'hoc rules of engagement in certain United Nations and other intergovernmental fora.
An Indigenous Caucus participates as observer to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), particularly its Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC). [1]
Indigenous Peoples participate in the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore as observers for their respective organizations, but also collectively through the informal Indigenous Caucus, "averaging around 25 to 30 people per session." [2]
According to WIPO IGC's Practical Guide for Participants:
Upon invitation of the Chairperson of the WIPO Indigenous Caucus, accredited observers who represent indigenous and local communities meet at the Indigenous Consultative Forum in order to prepare for the IGC on the day preceding its session. A meeting room is made available by WIPO for that purpose. Any accredited observer who represents indigenous and local communities and who wishes to attend the Consultative Forum is requested to advise the WIPO Secretariat in advance in order to be granted a badge at his or her arrival at the WIPO premises. [3]
The Indigenous Caucus also participated [4] in the Diplomatic Conference on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge which concluded the GRATK Treaty in May 2024 in Geneva, Switzerland. [5]
During the Conference, the Caucus served as a coordinating forum, enabling its participants with "pivotal roles in liaising with their respective country delegations and others they could connect with." [6] In addition, in the middle of the Diplomatic Conference, "a rotating member of the Indigenous Caucus" was allowed to participated in the reduced negotiating group, where other participants were representatives of WIPO's regional country groups. [7] As a participant to the Caucus related during the Diplomatic Conference:
The process gets truncated from now on with a much smaller group of representatives, including a rotating member of the Indigenous Caucus, participating in informal negotiations before wording is brought back to the two committees and then to a legal drafting group and into the final plenary session by Friday [24 May]. [8]
The United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights (UNFBHR) also has a Caucus of Indigenous Peoples. [9]
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention. In most countries, patent rights fall under private law and the patent holder must sue someone infringing the patent in order to enforce their rights.
The World Intellectual Property Organization is one of the 15 specialized agencies of the United Nations (UN). Pursuant to the 1967 Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO was created to promote and protect intellectual property (IP) across the world by cooperating with countries as well as international organizations. It began operations on 26 April 1970 when the convention entered into force. The current Director General is Singaporean Daren Tang, former head of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore, who began his term on 1 October 2020.
The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, is a comprehensive international agreement in harmony with the Convention on Biological Diversity, which aims at guaranteeing food security through the conservation, exchange and sustainable use of the world's plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA), the fair and equitable benefit sharing arising from its use, as well as the recognition of farmers' rights. It was signed in 2001 in Madrid, and entered into force on 29 June 2004.
In the politics of the European Union, an Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) is the formal procedure for negotiating amendments to the EU's founding treaties. Under the treaties, an IGC is called into being by the European Council, and is composed of representatives of the member states, with the Commission, and to a lesser degree the Parliament also participating.
IGC may stand for:
The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants or UPOV is a treaty body with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Its objective is to provide an effective system for plant variety protection. It does so by defining a blueprint regulation to be implemented by its members in national law. The expression UPOV Convention also refers to one of the three instruments that relate to the union, namely the 1991 Act of the UPOV Convention, 1978 Act of the UPOV Convention and 1961 Act of the UPOV Convention with Amendments of 1972.
The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) is a coalition of seven trade associations representing American companies that produce copyright-protected material, including computer software, films, television programs, music, books, and journals. Formed in 1984, it seeks to strengthen international copyright protection and enforcement by working with the U.S. government, foreign governments, and private-sector representatives.
Intellectual property rights (IPRs) have been acknowledged and protected in China since 1980. China has acceded to the major international conventions on protection of rights to intellectual property. Domestically, protection of intellectual property law has also been established by government legislation, administrative regulations, and decrees in the areas of trademark, copyright, and patent.
Traditional knowledge (TK), indigenous knowledge (IK), folk knowledge, and local knowledge generally refer to knowledge systems embedded in the cultural traditions of regional, indigenous, or local communities.
Indigenous intellectual property is a term used in national and international forums to describe intellectual property held to be collectively owned by various Indigenous peoples, and by extension, their legal rights to protect specific such property. This property includes cultural knowledge of their groups and many aspects of their cultural heritage and knowledge, including that held in oral history. In Australia, the term Indigenous cultural and intellectual property, abbreviated as ICIP, is commonly used.
The African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), formerly African Regional Industrial Property Organization, is an intergovernmental organization for cooperation among African states in patent and other intellectual property matters. ARIPO was established by the Lusaka Agreement of 1976. It has the capacity to hear applications for patents and registered trademarks in its member states who are parties to the Harare (patents), Banjul (marks) and Arusha protocols. ARIPO also features a protocol on the protection of traditional knowledge, the Swakopmund Protocol, signed in 2010 by 9 member states of the organization which entered into force on May 11, 2015, and was amended on December 6, 2016.
The Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances is a multilateral treaty which regulates copyright for audiovisual performances and expands the performers' rights. It was adopted on 26 June 2012 by the Diplomatic Conference on the Protection of Audiovisual Performances of the World Intellectual Property Organization, in which 156 WIPO member states, six intergovernmental, and six non-governmental organizations participated. Forty-eight countries signed the treaty on 26 June, followed by 19 other countries in 2012 and 2013. The treaty entered into force on 28 April 2020 following the receipt of the 30th ratification or accession and as of August 2021 has 42 contracting parties.
The International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change (IIFPCC) is the representative body of indigenous peoples participating in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
WIPO Lex is an online global database launched in 2010, which provides free public access to intellectual property laws, treaties and judicial decisions from around the world. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) maintains and develops the database.
Dhemsa is a traditional folk dance of tribal people of southern Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Andhra Pradesh in southern India. The dancers hold each other by the shoulder and waist, then dunce to the rhythm of traditional instruments. Dhemsa is performed in groups.
Paying public domain is a copyright regime where copies, presentations or performances of a work that has entered the public domain are still subject to royalties, which are payable to the state or to an authors' association. The principle is that revenue from the work of long-dead artists should be used to support creativity of living artists.
Biopiracy is the unauthorized appropriation of knowledge and genetic resources of farming and indigenous communities by individuals or institutions seeking exclusive monopoly control through patents or intellectual property. While bioprospecting is the act of exploring natural resources for undiscovered chemical compounds with medicinal or anti-microbial properties, commercial success from bioprospecting leads to the company's attempt at protecting their intellectual property rights on indigenous medicinal plants, seeds, genetic resources, and traditional medicines.
Digital sequence information (DSI) is a placeholder term used in international policy fora, particularly the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), to refer to data derived from dematerialized genetic resources (GR).
The Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore is in charge of negotiating one or several international legal instruments (treaty) to protect traditional knowledge, traditional cultural expressions, and genetic resources in relation with intellectual property, thus bridging existing gaps in international law. The IGC is convened in Geneva by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and has been meeting regularly since 2001.
The WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge or GRATK Treaty is an international legal instrument to combat biopiracy through disclosure requirements for patent applicants whose inventions are based on genetic resources and/or associated traditional knowledge.
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