Intellectual Property & Traditional Knowledge: My Interview on CBC Spark

Indigenous communities from India to South Africa to Canada have seen their traditional knowledge misappropriated and commercialized. In some cases, intellectual property rights are the root of the problem, leading to the unjust enrichment of “biopirates.” In other cases, intellectual property rights can be part of the solution for indigenous peoples, helping them to protect their cultural expressions, folklore, genetic resources, and associated traditional knowledge.

Photo of CBC Radio equipment
CBC Radio Museum, by Kristal Jax, on Flickr.

On the CBC Radio program Spark, I was interviewed by Nora Young about my research on these topics. My comments provided context for a story about India’s Traditional Knowledge Digital Library, or TKDL.

This topic ties in closely with one of the seminars I teach at the University of Ottawa, on Global Intellectual Property Policy.

Intellectual property and traditional knowledge is also a topic covered extensively in the research I co-lead through the Open African Innovation Research project, Open AIR.