The first innovators: why is protecting indigenous rights so difficult?

Valuing traditional knowledge on a par with other IP remains difficult, but methods are improving, says indigenous rights expert Daniel Sumalavia, indigenous rights expert and international consultant.

How can IP support indigenous brands (both start-ups and mature) when it comes to innovation?

For indigenous and local communities one of the main values of IP rights is recognition. Beyond the protection and the security provided by IP rights, the recognition of the titularity of those knowledges, the visibility, and empowerment generated by the IP rights are key.

Usually, traditional knowledge (TK) was accessed from “outside” the communities, and the benefits and all the credit were taken by these external interventions, from researchers, private initiatives, and sometimes even the government agencies. Indigenous peoples' ability as creators, inventors, and guardians of that knowledge was invisible. For a lot of communities, legal recognition (as IP TK rights) is a revindication.