Traditional knowledge

Protecting traditional knowledge from appropriation by others is a problem around the world. Earlier this year, South Africa launched a registry for traditional knowledge that is passed down orally. South Africa's The Southern Times reports: "'One of the aims is to try to make those communities that hold this traditional knowledge, part of the mainstream economy. An important feature of the system is that it immediately allows access to information about the geographical location of the traditional knowledge owners. This is important as it increases the efficiency of prior art research. The system will also provide prior art information for intellectual property offices for patent applications examination purposes."'

Despite ongoing negotiations at the World Intellectual Property Rights Organization, no international legal protection has yet been worked out to protect cultural heritage like traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expression, Indonesia's Antara News reports. Cultural heritage is left unprotected by intellectual property law.