People Plants and the Law
Stand and Deliver: Biopiracy, Law, and the Balkanization of the Genescape
ZoomFor 40 years now the users and suppliers of agricultural biodiversity have traded charges of highway robbery. Seed companies demand that purchasers of their seed pay a royalty and respect the intellectual property rights they hold on the crop varieties they claim as their inventions. Peasants, Indigenous peoples, and biodiverse nations demand that they be compensated for access to the
Supporting Indigenous Data: Introducing the Traditional Knowledge and Biocultural Labels
ZoomConcerns over Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Indigenous rights under the Nagoya Protocol underpin the development and application of Traditional Knowledge and Biocultural Labels/Notices. The Local Contexts system which delivers the Labels and Notices, is focused on implementing Indigenous provenance, protocols, and permissions into digital infrastructures.The Labels and Notices are designed to provide a persistent and durable connection between collaborating Indigenous communities and researchers,
Artificial by Nature: Plastic Flowers as Intangible Properties
ZoomIn March 1961, the refusal of entry of a ‘Sweetheart Roses’ consignment into the United States began a series of interesting controversies concerning the copyright in plastic roses, geraniums, lilacs, and flower corsages. Although the history of these cases remains largely unexplored, this paper shows how significant they were in addressing the unstable distinction between the natural and the artificial,
