Registration: IP.Policy@mbie.govt.nz before 14 February 2019 to save your seat.

Join us for a panel conversation about the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) negotiations towards better protection for traditional knowledge.

The event will take place between 10:00 and 11:00 am on Friday 15 February 2019, at Victoria University Faculty of Law, Old Government Buildings, 55 Lambton Quay, Room LT3.

The panellists are: Ian Goss (IGC, WIPO), Professor Susy Frankel (VUW), and Aroha Te Pareake Mead (Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Porou).

The misappropriation of indigenous knowledge and expressions is receiving increasing attention here and abroad. Examples include the use of indigenous imagery for branding, and “biopiracy” – the commercial use of indigenous knowledge of biological resources without permission or compensation. As yet, there are no international rules to help indigenous peoples enforce their rights in their knowledge and expressions.

At WIPO, the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC) is looking at how the international intellectual property system could address these kinds of issues.

Ian Goss, IGC Chair, will provide insights into the work of the IGC. This will be followed by a panel discussion with Ian, Susy Frankel, Professor of Law and Chair in Intellectual Property and International Trade at Victoria University Faculty of Law, and Aroha Te Pareake Mead, member of the IPONZ Trade Marks Māori Advisory Committee and the Ngā Taonga Tuku Iho conference organising committee, and specialist in indigenous knowledge and cultural and intellectual property rights.

This event is presented by MBIE and IPONZ in partnership with the New Zealand Centre of International Economic Law.