CPD Course:
Medicine, Wine, Art,
Traditional Skills and
Cultural Appropriation:
Intellectual Property or
Intangible Cultural Heritage?

This 3-hour seminar will provide an introduction to the interplay between intellectual property (IP) and intangible cultural heritage (ICH).  UNESCO's 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage identified intangible cultural heritage as, "the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills... that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage."  China, as a party, and Hong Kong, through China, have embraced the ideals of the Convention, in particular the "safeguarding" obligation of membership, which includes "the identification, documentation, research, preservation, protection, promotion, enhancement, transmission... as well as the revitalization of the various aspects of such heritage."

However, included in the identification of the intangible cultural heritage, among much else, may be works of art in any form, the skills of the artist, foods and drinks, and the recipes and manufacturing skills behind these foods and drinks, traditional remedies, cosmetics, and the style, design, pattern and skills used in the making of clothes.  Many of these forms of intangible cultural heritage may also be recognised as forms of intellectual property.

This seminar considers the problems that have arisen when those asserting the need for a jurisdiction to safeguard intangible culture heritage, under one of the newest international and domestic legal frameworks, have met when this identification threatens intellectual property rights, under a very well established international and domestic framework.

• What is intellectual property?
• What is intangible cultural heritage?
• The relationship between IP and ICH;
• Why is ICH so popular?
• Why is IP so important?
• Traditional remedies and medical practices;
• Indigenous knowledge and big business;
• World Heritage status for Prosecco, but who cares about Prošek?
• Works of art as cultural heritage and artists' rights;
• Appreciating artists' work while infringing their rights;
• Language, sharks' fins and ivory carving;
• Cultural appreciation and/or cultural appropriation.