Protection Of Traditional Cultural Expressions Under The Intellectual Property Laws, With A Special Focus On Copyright Laws
Anagha Nair, Christ (Deemed to be University), Bangalore
ABSTRACT
With a change in time and development of technology, evolution of new digital and broadcasting technologies, there has been a widespread commercialization of the traditional cultural expressions, often without the consent of the communities that the particular traditional cultural expression belongs to and been protected by them for generations, which calls for an urgent need for the protection and preservation of these expressions. This commercial exploitation, has resulted in the communities from which these cultural expressions originated, being denied their cultural and economic interests in these expressions and this places an obligation on the national governments as well as international organizations to look at intellectual property in a completely new role, i.e. there is a shift in the purpose that intellectual property rights had been serving as an economic incentives for creativity and now intellectual property rights are being viewed as a tool to promote and protect cultures and the cultural autonomy of various groups and communities.
Thus, Traditional Knowledge was incorporated in the National Intellectual Property Rights Policy, 2016, and its constant misappropriation and misuse mainly accelerated by technological changes and globalisation, has led to trans-boundary issues, and contemporary debates across the globe and in India, demanding for the creation of a legal framework to protect Traditional Cultural Expressions. In the light of the same, it becomes pertinent to undertake a study of issues on protection of these Traditional Cultural Expressions.
Keywords: Copyright Laws, Traditional Cultural Expressions, Misappropriation, Adequate Protection
