Technetra: IP Rights, Open Source Methods and Traditional Knowledge in Developing Countries

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"Traditional knowledge can be viewed as a kind of collective sense within shared communities. Considered as a form of community common sense, traditional knowledge may be general or may be specialized depending on the topic. For example, the application and efficacy of medicinal plants as understood by traditional medical practitioners in a tribal community forms a specialized island of common sense and wisdom. Particularized bodies of knowledge underlying a society's art, medicine and agriculture may be handed down from generation to generation via give-and-take collaboration and the practice of apprenticeship.

"Unfortunately, there is a growing notion among proponents of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) that property protection should be applied to islands of traditional knowledge in order to preserve and promote them..."

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