Indigenous Intellectual Property Rights

Riley and her group of expert contributors supply a unique set of worldwide case studies and policy analyses as guidance for indigenous communities and their partners, in attempting to protect their intellectual property. Much of the existing literature already addresses the poor fit between western regimes of intellectual property rights and the requirements for safeguarding indigenous cultural resources. The manuscript gets beyond these negative claims in depicting positive efforts at protecting indigenous knowledge and cultures, notwithstanding these legal limitations. The reader is exposed to a wide array of legal, political, organizational, and contractual strategies deployed by indigenous groups to protect their intellectual property interests. It will be an important resource for social scientists, advocates for indigenous and human rights, bioprospecting, indigenous leaders, NGOs and law libraries.
The expert contributors from around the globe provide unique case studies to guide indigenous communities and their partners in protecting their intellectual property. Addressing the poor fit between western regimes of intellectual property rights and the requirements for safeguarding indigenous cultural resources, the authors describe positive eff
Dr. Mary Riley has edited an extremely timely and indispensable book for understanding the myriad issues impinging upon indigenous intellectual property rights. The legal protection of these intellectual achievements and the ability to control their dissemination by indigenous communities is a problem facing the world's legal and intellectual communities. In a world with a global economy and where local borders are ignored, indigenous property rights are constantly violated and exploited. The challenge is guidance from creative solutions and innovative programs to involve the people whose prior control is ignored. This thoughtful volume is a wonderful textbook for anthropology, business, and legal courses to enable students to propose solutions to local problems that defy easy answers for preserving indigenous knowledge and protecting economic interests of powerless communities.--Richard I. Ford, University of Michigan
This book covers much of the enormous range of concerns Native peoples have today about appropriation and alienation of their cultural property and rights. . . . A good source for surveying the breadth of the IPR discourse today.--Tom Greaves, Bucknell University
This kaleidoscopic collection explores legal strategies for defending the artistic and technological creations of indigenous peoples from misuse by outsiders. Each chapter illuminates a different facet of the problem. Together they offer fresh and urgently needed insight into one of the most vexing human-rights problems of the digital age. A superb addition to the required reading list of courses on globalization, intellectual property, and indigenous rights.--Michael F. Brown, Williams College, author of Who Owns Native Culture?