Indigenous Rights Committee Hosts Dialogue in Kenya

INTA hosted a hybrid dialogue entitled IP Rights and Indigenous Rights: Between Commercialization and Recognition in Nairobi, Kenya, and online on January 23.

The event was moderated by Indigenous Rights Committee member Lorraine Takaendesa (Honey & Blanckenberg, Zimbabwe) and Anticounterfeiting Committee member Elizabeth Lenjo (MyIP Legal Studio, Kenya).

During the first of two panel sessions, speakers Daphne Zografos Johnsson (World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Switzerland), Shumi Pango (Department of Science and Technology, South Africa), and Cherina Zerbo (DON TALATO, Burkina Faso) provided insights on the use of existing intellectual property (IP) rights and South Africa’s policy framework and Indigenous entrepreneurship. They also touched on the ongoing policy debate over whether traditional knowledge and cultural expressions should be protected under existing trademark, certification marks, and/or geographical indications laws, or whether there is a need to develop a sui generis framework.

A second panel focused on Kenya’s journey towards the protection of traditional knowledge and cultural expressions. Dr. Kiprop Lagat (Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Heritage, Kenya) and Isaac Tialolo (Maasai Intellectual Property Initiative (MIPI)) shared a candid conversation on state and community-based efforts to protect the traditional knowledge of Kenya’s Indigenous communities. The panelists emphasized the need to protect Indigenous rights from exploitation and misappropriation by third parties, and the importance of proactively promoting the use of traditional knowledge by Indigenous communities.

Kenya enacted the Protection of Traditional Knowledge and Cultural Expressions Act (the Act) in 2016. Draft regulations relating to the registration, access and utilization, and the licensing of traditional knowledge have been prepared and INTA has provided comments. Enacting these regulations will pave the way for the full implementation of the Act.

Although every effort has been made to verify the accuracy of this article, readers are urged to check independently on matters of specific concern or interest.

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