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W. Bradnee Chambers, Alphonse Kambu
Mohammed and the Mountain: The Sui Generis Debate on Traditional Knowledge
Introduction
Should Mohammed go to the mountain or should the mountain come to Mohammed? For indigenous groups around the world who have watched their knowledge and way of life erode from outside forces, they want the mountain to come to them for a change and they are demanding that the current global intellectual property rules be adjusted to protect their traditional knowledge instead of them trying to fit into a system that was never designed with their needs in mind.
Most experts agree that traditional knowledge? the local know-how to use plants and animals for therapeutic, medicinal or artisan purposes?cannot be easily protected under current international law. But for the world’s poorest, traditional knowledge is the foundation of many services that they could not otherwise afford. For example, medical treatment based on traditional knowledge meets about 80% of their daily healthcare needs.
Journal of International Biotechnology Law, Walter de Gruyter
Print ISSN: 1612-6068
Volume: 2, 07/2005
Pages: 150 - 154