WIPO Welcomes Moves to Enhance Protection of Traditional Knowledge & Folklore in Africa

GENEVA - The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Director General Francis Gurry has welcomed the adoption by member states of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) of a new legal instrument that seeks to protect African traditional knowledge and folklore.

A press release by WIPO stated that Gurry described the adoption in Swakopmund, Namibia, earlier this month, of the Swakopmund Protocol on the Protection of Traditional Knowledge and Expressions of Folklore as “an historic step for ARIPO’s seventeen member states, and a significant milestone in the evolution of intellectual property.”