Mechanisms for the protection of traditional knowledge: The case of Colombia

Abstract

This article explores and critically analyzes Colombian legal and jurisprudential mechanisms to protect traditional knowledge (TK) in order to contribute to the current debate on divergent rationalities aroUnd protection alternatives: on one side, indigenous communities' worldview, and on the other, market rationality. For that reason, in the first section we explore elements of TK, while in the next sections, we analyze normative, both existing (stated in law) and emergent (jurisprudential theory and judicial precedent), to protect that knowledge. We foUnd that there are two tendencies among emergent mechanisms: one, embodied in guardianship sentencing by the Constitutional Court, can be considered as protective, as it holds a systemic conception of TK and highlights the importance of its constitutive elements for an effective protection. The second, immersed in constitutional sentencing on trade agreements, set market's rationality before systemic conception of TK by applying intellectual property instruments.