IPR

Intellectual Property Rights. I attended a gathering in a university recently and I presented something on the work I do. During my presentation, I mentioned and underlined IPR. In a university where they say: "You either have to publish or perish", I think I got some interesting stares.

Ideas and non verbal, unwritten ways of life, environmental conservation of traditional people among others are some of the things that are not patented but need to be protected by IPR.

It is sad that some who reside in the most beautiful and remote places rarely get the chance to claim the ownership of such ideas and way of life. It is like having land titles. Traditional people lost their ancestral lands due to a piece of paper. But I hope that IPR will help traditional people claim their own stories, folklore, traditions before anyone else.