6.5 Intellectual Property Perspective on Traditional Knowledge, Traditional Cultural Expression and Genetic Resources

1. Traditional Knowledge (TK): the medicinal, agricultural and ecological knowledge of indigenous and local communities. The classic IP tools fit badly (individual authors, limited terms, registration formality against collective, intergenerational, often oral knowledge). Protection runs two ways: defensive (prior-art databases and TK libraries that block others' patents — the turmeric and neem revocations' lore) and positive (sui generis community rights). The WIPO IGC's draft instruments remain unfinished after decades. 2. Traditional Cultural Expression (TCE): the folklore world — music, dance, designs, crafts, symbols. The problem is unauthorised commercialisation by outsiders. Nepal's stakes are direct: the crafts, the ritual art, the music and their misuse in the global market. 3. Genetic Resources (GR): the biodiversity material itself — seeds, medicinal plants. The CBD and Nagoya Protocol world governs access and benefit-sharing (ABS): prior informed consent, mutually agreed terms, and benefit-sharing. The IP interface is the disclosure-of- origin debate in patent applications. Nepal's faces: the biodiversity and community-forestry regimes, with the ABS and farmers' rights clauses — the environment-law (LAW5603, Semester 7) and natural-resources-law (LAW5708, Semester 8) interfaces. The prescribed case's window: Gopal Bhattarai et al. vs. Nepal Government, Writ No. 072-CR-1763, Decision Date: 2080/02/28 B.S. — the recent writ of the IP-law-and-policy line. Read the report and cite verbatim with the syllabus's citation (the honest placement note).