Western IP systems reduce indigenous knowledge to the logic of development – that obliterates indigenous identity and crushes them domestically

TKPT or traditional medicine embodies indigenous cultural expressions and world views in their complexities. Intellectual property, specifically patent, is inadequate to provide the required preservation and protection mechanism for indigenous cultural identity embodied in TKPT. Like other categories of mainstream intellectual property rights, the conceptual foundation of patent does not recognize indigenous norms and values. For indigenous peoples to take advantage of the existing patent regime, especially as it applies to TKPT, is to allow themselves to be coerced to subscribe to a discredited logic of development.4 Simply stated, one of the consequences of the prevailing logic of development is the assimilation of indigenous and local peoples’ knowledge and value systems into Western scientific terms. Assimilation has negative multiplier effects. Those effects include epistemological reductionism, the obliteration of indigenous identity, and economic disempowerment. They strike at the core of indigenous aspirations. Ironically, one of the high points of international law on indigenous peoples is the rejection of the earlier policy of assimilation in preference to indigenous self-determination and preservation of indigenous cultural identity.