WIPO Launches Guide On Use Of IP For Arts And Cultural Festivals

The World Intellectual Property Organization announced the publication of a practical guide on how best to use intellectual property for organisers of arts and cultural festivals.

The publication titled, “Intellectual Property and Folk, Arts and Cultural Festivals – A Practical Guide,” [pdf] identifies “the main IP challenges faced by festival organizers and outlines some practical elements of an effective IP management strategy,” according to the publication.

It was launched today during the 44th International Council of Organizations of Folklore Festivals and Folk Arts (CIOFF) World Congress in Bautzen, Germany, according to WIPO.

In particular, the guide gives suggestions on how to “harness a festival’s IP assets and how best to promote respect for the world’s cultures features at the festival.”

The guide provides some examples of IP questions that festival organisers may have, and details IP instruments that might be used.

IP issues in festivals, according to the guide, range from “the sale of fake festival merchandise to the pirating of the festival’s official broadcast signal, all the way to the offensive copying of sacred symbols or rituals of festival participants, such as the sale of postcards reproducing photographs of a sacred dance or the use without permission of a video clip of a traditional performance in a tourism promotion campaign.”

IP tools such as copyright (for songs, dances or costumes), trademarks (names and images), geographical indications (agricultural or manufactured products) and industrial designs (festival logo,t-shirts and merchandising items,) are presented in the guide.

The guides states that “to this day, TK [traditional knowledge] and TCEs [traditional cultural expressions], unless secret or protected through some special legislation, are generally regarded by conventional IP systems as being in the public domain,” and adds that “indigenous peoples and others question this.”

Image Credits: Flickr – Brendan