Protecting Indigenous knowledge in the intellectual property system

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The appropriate recognition and protection of Indigenous cultural and intellectual property (ICIP) is an increasingly important issue for many departments and agencies in a variety of different scenarios.

This can be a challenging issue to address as Australia’s intellectual property (IP) system does not currently recognise or protect the full breadth of ICIP.

IP Australia, the Commonwealth agency responsible for administering the Trade Marks, Designs and Patents Acts, recently completed consultations about the way in which Australia’s IP system could better recognise and protect ICIP. IP Australia has now released their consultation report, Protection of Indigenous Knowledge in the Intellectual Property System. The consultation report includes a summary of the responses to IP Australia’s original 12 proposed initiatives for the protection and management ICIP included in their consultation paper.

Officers who are interested in staying up to date about future developments in the recognition and protection of ICIP may wish to subscribe to email updates from IP Australia.