This is an article with educational information about Intellectual Property.
From the cultural level, traditional knowledge is considered as collective knowledge, from which all kinds of practices, experiences, methods, symbols and signs, ancestral or local knowledge, cultural expressions are derived, which come from the peoples, nationalities and communities that have been developed, and transmitted from generation to generation.1
Given this first consideration, it is important to highlight that over the years the conception of the traditional and cultural has not been respected, especially by manufacturing industries that have wanted to take advantage of the knowledge or expression of various cultures from different countries, either from pharmaceutical, artistic, textile, among others.
In this sense, it is common for the textile industry, especially fashion companies, to culturally appropriate symbols and signs that come from distinctive expressions of a people, nationality or community, to attach them to a garment, accessory, or to marketing and advertising issues, being that they would take advantage of that to profit without giving any recognition to said community, such as in the 2017 fashion week in which the LOEWE brand culturally appropriated gossip figures and symbols of the people otavaleño.
Given this, an optimal solution to protect the entire sphere of names, signs, symbols and all types of indigenous and traditional words can be done through the intellectual property regime through certification marks, collective marks, or geographical indications. , to avoid cultural appropriations of companies.
In this way, it is important to safeguard the integrity of all these traditional elements that have been generated and will be generated in the future within Ecuador.
In addition to becoming aware of the need for comprehensive protection, to date there are no defined guidelines regarding cultural appropriation, it can be taken into account that from the constitutional perspective to the regulations of the national and community intellectual property regime there are mechanisms to protect, conserve , and protect what is derived from cultural knowledge.
Without forgetting that it is the responsibility of the State to ensure the protection of this knowledge to achieve the objectives of the development regime.
Bibliography
SENADI. (taken December 20, 2023). TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE. Obtained from https://www.propiedadintelectual.gob.ec/trabajos_tradicionales/
