The KDI School of Public Policy and Management Intellectual Property Forum (KDIS IP Forum), a student-led academic and networking platform at the KDI School, has hosted a special lecture on the evolving place of Indigenous knowledge in global intellectual property law.

The lecture, delivered by Professor Graham Dutfield, focused on the theme Intellectual Property Rights for Indigenous Peoples: The Long and Winding Road, and examined the new World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge. The session was held at Ambassador Hall as part of the KDIS IP Forum Special Lecture series.

Professor Dutfield, Professor of International Governance at the School of Law, University of Leeds, and Professor of IP, Emerging Issues and Sustainable Development at KDI School, said the protection of Indigenous knowledge has remained one of the most complex and unfinished questions in the global intellectual property system. He explained that while conventional intellectual property rules have long protected patents, trademarks, copyrights and industrial designs, Indigenous knowledge has often been treated as informal, communal, cultural or outside the normal boundaries of legal ownership.

In his presentation, he traced the long history of assumptions that have obstructed respect for Indigenous knowledge. He said Indigenous communities have often been wrongly viewed as either too primitive or too noble to hold property rights in land, resources and knowledge. He also pointed to the old social-evolutionary thinking that treated settled agriculture and visible cultivation as the only legitimate basis for property claims, while dismissing the ecological knowledge, conservation practices and resource management systems of rainforest, desert, Arctic and other Indigenous communities.

Professor Dutfield also reflected on how the idea of “wilderness” has historically been used to erase the presence, labour and knowledge of Indigenous Peoples. According to him, lands occupied and managed by Indigenous communities were often treated as empty, wasted or available for more “productive” use by settlers and extractive industries. He said such thinking contributed to the long-standing failure to recognise the intellectual, scientific and developmental value embedded in Indigenous practices, especially in agriculture, biodiversity, health, nutrition, ecosystems management and biotechnology.

A major part of the lecture focused on disclosure of origin, one of the key issues in the new WIPO treaty. Professor Dutfield explained that where a claimed invention in a patent application is based on genetic resources, applicants may be required to disclose the country of origin or source of those resources. Where the invention is based on traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources, applicants may also be required to disclose the Indigenous Peoples or local community that provided the associated traditional knowledge, or the source of that knowledge, where the specific community is not known.

He emphasized that the treaty should be understood carefully. While it marks an important step in recognising the relationship between intellectual property, genetic resources and traditional knowledge, it does not create entirely new rights or reduce existing ones. He noted that the treaty may not directly increase rates of innovation, but could still have major value if it improves relationships between researchers, scientists, Indigenous knowledge holders and their communities.

Professor Dutfield said the wider goal should be to build a more respectful innovation system, where traditional knowledge is not simply extracted, documented or commercialised without recognition. He stressed that  stronger respect for Indigenous knowledge must include transparency, consent, fair disclosure and benefit-sharing, especially where scientific research or patent claims rely on knowledge preserved and transmitted by Indigenous Peoples over generations.

Speaking on behalf of the KDIS IP Forum, Vice Representative, Dionne Mc Nicol Stephenson, an MIPD from Trinidad and Tobago, noted that the lecture came at an important time for students and professionals working at the intersection of intellectual property and development policy. She said traditional knowledge remains a developing area of intellectual property, carrying both legal challenges and major opportunities for communities whose contributions to world knowledge have not always been properly recognised.

She added that the Treaty on Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore represents “a continuing effort to establish respect and enable reward in the same way that traditional forms of IP do,” noting that she was personally pleased that WIPO had seen it fit to include Indigenous knowledge as an important part of its agenda.

Also, Aishath Shahudha Abdulla(MIPD Maldives) said the biggest takeaway was that decades of advocacy by Indigenous Peoples and their allies had finally produced a concrete international outcome. She said the journey from colonial-era denial of Indigenous knowledge rights, through major concerns over biopiracy, to the adoption of a real WIPO treaty in 2024 showed that sustained advocacy could eventually reshape global rules.

According to Abdulla, although the treaty requires patent applicants to disclose the source of genetic resources or traditional knowledge used in their inventions without creating a full access and benefit-sharing mechanism, it remains an important step forward. She said the disclosure requirement means patent offices now have a more formal basis to encourage good-faith collaboration with knowledge holders, especially in cases where inventions draw from genetic resources or traditional knowledge associated with Indigenous and local communities.

This KDIS IP Forum lecture is part of an ongoing lecture series, reflecting this student-led forum’s commitment to engaging critically with contemporary debates and critical issues in intellectual property.