Implementation Challenges for Intellectual Property Rights and the Rights of Local, Indigenous, and Farming Communities (corporate-led vs. community-led agriculture biodiversity management)

1. TRIBHUVAN UNIVERSITY
Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science
Campus of Live Sciences
Tulsipur, Dang
A Presentation on...
Implementation Challenges for Intellectual Property Rights and the Rights of Local, Indigenous and Farming
Communities (corporate-led vs. community-led agriculture biodiversity management)
SAGAR BHANDARI
Campus of Live Sciences
Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science

2. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
RIGHTS
RIGHTS OF FARMING
COMMUNITIES
CORPORATE LED VS. COMMUNITY LED
AGROBIODIVERSITY MANAGEMENT
REFERENCES
1
3
2
4
CONTENT

3. What is Intellectual
Property (IP)?
Inventions
Literary works
Artistic works
N Names
Images and graphics
Designs and symbols
Any creations of the mind which includes and is not limited to:

4. What is Intellectual
Property Right(IPR)?
1 Nature of IP
2 Place of technology
3 Associated costs
5 Duration of protection
6 Type of protection sought for
4 Need to show invention
An inventor should get a reward that is proportionate to the benefits society is reaping
from it. The right of an inventor to derive the economic benefits from his inventions is
called intellectual property right.

5. C.
FORMS OF IPR
Plant Breeder’s Rights (PBR)
•What it is?
•Criteria:
Novelty
Distinctiveness
Uniformity
Stability
Trade secret
IP rights on confidential information which may be sold or
licensed. The unauthorized acquisition, use or disclosure of such
secret information contrary to honest commercial practices by
others is regarded as a violation of the trade secret protection.
Trademark
A trademark is a sign capable of distinguishing the goods
or services of one enterprise from those of other enterprises.
Copyright
Describes the rights that creators have over their literary and
artistic works. Books, music, paintings, sculpture and films, to
computer programs, databases, advertisements, maps and
technical drawings.
Patent
A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention.
Generally speaking, a patent provides the patent owner with
the right to decide how - or whether - the invention can be used
by others.
P. T. T.
Industrial designs
Geographical indications

6. 1965
THE PATENT, DESIGN
AND TRADEMARK ACT
1998
CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT
2002
COPYRIGHT ACT
2015
THE CONSTITUTION OF NEPAL
2017
NATIONAL IPR POLICY
LEGISLATIONS REGARDING IPR

7. THE PATENT, DESIGN AND TRADEMARK ACT, 1965
The Section 3(2) of the act mentions, “No one shall copy or use or cause to use in the name of the others
without transforming the ownership or written permission pursuant to Section 21d, the patent registered in the
name of any person pursuant to this Act”. On violation of this section one can be charged up to two hundred
and fifty thousand as penalty. This act also protects design and trademark rights of innovators.
1
CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT, 1998
The consumer protection act serves in intellectual property right by disallowing any one to imitate any kinds
of consumer goods to mislead the consumer. This means no one should copy any goods from other invention
without consent. Failing to do so may result in up to 5 years of imprisonment or fine of one hundred thousands
or both.
2
COPYRIGHT ACT, 2002
The Section 3 of the act mentions:
Copyright protection shall be extended to any work
Any translation, arrangement, sequential arrangement of work or collection of works presented as original
from viewpoint of presentation, collection or expression, data or database readable with or without support
of machine, any proverb, folktale, folk song falling under folk expression or any other derivate works based
on folk expression shall be protected as original work, without prejudice to the copyright of the original
work.
Section 6 provides economic right to the owner of work which means one have to pay royalty to the creator
on selling the product of that creator.
3

8. THE CONSTITUTION OF NEPAL, 2015
In 2015, Nepal took a historic decision to include ‘intellectual property’ within the fundamental right chapter
of the newly promulgated constitution of Nepal. According to Article 25 “Every citizen shall, subject to law,
have the right to acquire, own, sell, dispose, acquire business profits from, and otherwise deal with,
property”. On the constitution, for the purpose of this article, Property means as any form of property
including movable and immovable property, and includes an intellectual property right.
4
NATIONAL IPR POLICY, 2017
The policy seeks to:
develop new legal framework or revise the existing ones for copyright, patent, industrial design, trademark,
geographical indication, plant species, trade secrets, integrated circuit, layout design, traditional and
indigenous knowledge, traditional cultural expression and folklore, biodiversity and genetic resource in line
with the country’s needs
use existing traditional knowledge, biodiversity and geographical indication as a tool for national
development
use IP as a source for environment-friendly technology transfer, foreign investment, research promotion and
development of technical capacity and knowledge
increase awareness about IP and its importance for the economic, social and cultural progress of the society
encourage commercialization of all forms of IP
Develop strong laws and institutional and human resources to enforce protection of IPR
Develop a separate institutional mechanism namely National Intellectual Property Council to enforce
effective execution of policies set out in the National Intellectual Property Policy, 2017
5

9. WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ORGANIZATION
(WIPO)
Established in 1967
193 member states
Director General: Daren Tang
Headquarter: Geneva, Switzerland
1. WIPO is the global forum for intellectual property (IP)
services, policy, information and cooperation.
2. Helps governments, businesses and society realize the
benefits of IP.
3. Provides global services to protect IP across borders and to
resolve disputes.
4. A world reference source for IP information
TRADE-RELATED ASPECTS OF INTELLECTUAL
PROPERTY RIGHTS
(TRIPS)
Negotiated during the 1986-94 Uruguay Round
TRIPS came into effect on January 1995
Article 27
The areas and years of protection includes:
1. Patent for 20 years
2. Copyright for 25-50 years
3. Trademark for 7 years
4. Industrial design for 10 years
5. Integrated circuit design for 10 years
6. undisclosed information can be protected as long
as the information is kept secret
The TRIPS agreement introduced intellectual property law into
the multilateral trading system for the first time and remains the
most comprehensive multilateral agreement on intellectual
property to date. The TRIPS Agreement covers five broad
areas:
1. how general provisions and basic principles of the
multilateral trading system apply to international
intellectual property
2. what the minimum standards of protection are for
intellectual property rights that members should provide
3. which procedures members should provide for the
enforcement of those rights in their own territories
4. how to settle disputes on intellectual property between
members of the WTO
5. special transitional arrangements for the implementation of
TRIPS provisions.

10. IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES FOR IPR
06
BORDER
MANAGEMENT
05
UNAWARE
CONSUMERS
04
PRIVATE RIGHT- A
MISCONCEPTION !
“Ineffective rights are worse than no rights at all”
03 SECURE, USABLE
AND PUBLIC ?
01 COUNTERFEIT 02 PIRACY

11. 2
3 4
5
6
1
To have identity and respect
of every farmer or food
producer
To participate in food and
agro- production system
To have access to means and
resources required for
agricultural business
To obtain protection against
the deprivation of agricultural
occupation arbitrarily
To protect traditional and
indigenous food
To make choice of local seeds,
technology, tools and agro-
species and to obtain the IPR
RIGHTS OF FARMING COMMUNITIES
The Right to Food and Food Sovereignty Act, 2075 (2018), Chapter 3, Section 12
“It should not be that the Farmers should claim for their rights, it must be given without even asking for”

12. 02
Right to self
determination
04
Protection and promotion
of intangible cultural
heritage
01
Right to land and
natural resources
03
The indigenous people
shall have the right of
free, prior and
informed consent
05
Implementation of ILO
169 (Benefit sharing
and decision making)
 Rights of indigenous
communities came into
discussion only after 2006.
 Are today’s CAs/ NPs were
the property of indigenous
communities?? (Indigenous
Property distribution system)
 No rights to indigenous
communities is equivalent to
disregarding the IPR regimes
 Then, what does
nationalization of natural
resources mean??
37%
59 Ethnic groups
RIGHTS CLAIMED BY INDIGENOUS
COMMUNITIES
NUS

13. S.N. CORPORATE-LED S.N. COMMUNITY-LED
1. Lead by some conservation companies 1. Lead by the community
2. Less viable and more vulnerable (patent risk) 2. More viable and less vulnerable
3. No feeling of ownership 3. Feeling of ownership
4. Top down approach in itself 4. Bottom up approach in itself
5. External corporate may not understand the local
sentiments and needs
5. Governed by the principle of care
6. Costly 6. Economical
7. Environmental aspect of biodiversity management are
mostly focused
7. Environmental, social and economic aspects of
biodiversity management are focused
8. Not transparent, more chance of corruption and
misconduct
8. Transparent, no or little chance of corruption and
misconduct
9. No lack of capital fund to implement a program 9. There may be lack of capital fund to implement a
program
10. Ex: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 10. Ex: Community forest user groups, CSB, etc.
CORPORATE LED VS. COMMUNITY LED AGROBIODIVERSITY MANAGEMENT

14. 01
Nepal
became the
member of
WIPO in
1997
02
Nepal ranks
95th among
the 131
economies of
the world as
per GII 2020
03
ADS too has
ensured to
strengthen
the Farmers’
rights
04
YOU KNOW WHAT!!!
Government is
working to
establish
National
Intellectual
Property
Protection Office
(NIPPO)

15. REFERENCECS
1. Adhikari, J. (2008). Land Reform in Nepal: Problems and Prospects. Kathmandu: ActionAid.
2. Busza, E., Allen, N., Neckelmann, M., Chua, T., & Zhang, K. (2012). Intellectual Property Rights Challenges Facing
Foreign and Canadian Companies in China: Survey results and analysis. Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.
3. GoN. (2015). Constitution of Nepal. Kathmandu: Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs.
4. GoN. (2017). National Intellectual Property Right Policy. Kathmandu: Nepal Law Commission.
5. GoN. (1998). The Consumer Protection Act, 1998. Kathmandu: Nepal Law Commission.
6. GoN. (2002). The Copyright Act, 2002. Kathmandu: Nepal Law Commission.
7. GoN. (1965). The Patent, Design and Trademark Act, 1965. Kathmandu: Nepal Law Commission.
8. Maharjan, K. (2016). Land contestation in Nepal: Indigenous land tenure and national land policy. Nepal
Journal of Social Science and Public Policy , 4 (1), 120-141.
9. Neville-Rolfe, B. (2016, November). WIPO MAGAZINE. Retrieved April 14, 2021, from WORLD INTELLECTUAL
PROPERTY ORGANIZATION: https://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2016/si/article_0004.html
10.Rosenbaum, B., Reily, H., & Widmer, M. (2017). Protecting Intellectual Property Rights: Challenges, opportunities
and solutions. Deloitte LLP.

16. THANK
YOU
For more information:
https://www.wipo.int
http://www.nepalcopyright.gov.np
http://www.doind.gov.np
https://www.nefin.org.np
Sagar Bhandari