Traditional knowledge - legislation in the new tradition

The government is on the threshold of passing legislation to grant protection of, and the facility to derive revenue from the use of, so-called "traditional knowledge" (TK) - i.e. folklore, tribal art and music and the like, or so it thinks. The Trade and Industry Portfolio Committee of Parliament has finalised the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Bill and it is well on its way towards becoming law. It is indeed a "new" piece of legislation coming out of Africa.

The drafting process

The Bill has been at least four years in the making. A first draft prepared by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) first saw the light of day in 2007. After three years of introspective effort on the part of the DTI, the Bill came before the Portfolio Committee. To its credit the Committee soon recognised that it was rubbish and that it could not advance in the state in which it had been received. The Committee wisely realised that there was little prospect of the DTI coming up with anything better and decided that it would, itself, redraft the Bill. It probably did not, and still does not, realise the enormity and complexity of the task. To its credit, the Portfolio Committee has greatly improved the Bill and has altered it radically. Its version has not been made available to the public for scrutiny and comment. It contains a number of new provisions and principles and has (thankfully) radically changed the original version. This raises the question of whether the revised Bill should have been re-published for public comment and whether, in the absence of its re-publication, there has been adequate consultation on it as required by the Constitution.

Read the full blog post on http://blogs.sun.ac.za/ipchair.