The trend up to now has been that the holders of this knowledge believe in mystical forms of
protection, as any protection at the level of IP could result in their magic secrets becoming
known. This idea, moreover, emerges from the position taken by PROMETRA, an organization
whose aim is to promote traditional medicine and which acknowledges that the only form used
by its practitioners is secrecy, not just because they are not familiar with IP mechanisms, but
simply because none of them is disposed to reveal their treatment processes to others.
Against this background, the international community has made a number of attempts to
overcome this difficulty, such as the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, some
rules contained in the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and the efforts made by the World Intellectual Property
Organization’s Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources,
Traditional Knowledge and Folklore. At the regional level we can highlight the Andean Pact on a
Common Regime on Access to Genetic Resources of 1996, of which Bolivia, Colombia,
Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela are members. The African Union had already produced a draft law
which has been used by several countries as a source of domestic legislation on this issue. In
November 2006 in Maputo, the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) in
turn launched a debate on a draft “legal instrument on the protection of traditional knowledge
and expressions of folklore”. Some countries have already issued domestic legislation on
traditional knowledge, folklore, genetic resources and the sharing of benefits, such as
Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Malawi, Paraguay,
Peru, the Philippines, Portugal, South Africa, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Recently, through its Genetic Heritage Management Council, Brazil published Resolution No.
23/2006 of 28 December 2006, which provides that: "The granting of industrial property rights
by the relevant authorities, on a process or product obtained from a sample of a component of
our genetic heritage, shall be conditional on the observance of this provisional measure, and
applicants must indicate the origin of the genetic material and of the relevant traditional
knowledge, where appropriate.”