Intellectual Property Rights and Native American Tribes

American Indian Law Review Volume 20 | Number 1 1-1-1995 Intellectual Property Rights and Native American Tribes Richard A. Guest Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.ou.edu/ailr Part of the Indian and Aboriginal Law Commons, and the Intellectual Property Law Commons Recommended Citation Richard A. Guest, Intellectual Property Rights and Native American Tribes, 20 Am. Indian L. Rev. 111 (1995), https://digitalcommons.law.ou.edu/ailr/vol20/iss1/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by University of Oklahoma College of Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in American Indian Law Review by an authorized editor of University of Oklahoma College of Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact . INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBES Richard A. Guest* [AIll Property is Theft.' Introduction In recent years, several Native American tribes have begun a journey into the unfamiliar terrain of intellectual property rights as a means to assert their self-determination, secure economic independence, and protect their cultural identities. Although "ideas about property have played a central role in shaping the American legal order,"2 in the prevailing legal literature of intellectual property law in the United States, the protection of Native American intellectual property rights is rarely an issue of consideration. Suzan Shown Harjo, in her article, Native Peoples' Culturaland Human Rights: An Unfinished Agenda, writes: "The cultural and intellectual property rights of Native Peoples are worthy of being addressed during this time of increased appropriation of Native national names, religious symbology, and cultural images."3 In contrast, within the realm of international law, the topic of intellectual property is a high priority, uniting the concerns for self-determination and economic independence. For example, the International Alliance of the Indigenous-Tribal Peoples of the Tropical Forests set out in the articles of its Charter demands for respect of the right to self-determination of indigenous peoples and guaranteed rights their intellectual property.4 The most * J.D., 1994, University of Arizona College of Law. The original version of this paper was submitted as a substantive thesis in the Tribal Law Seminar at the University of Arizona College of Law. A shortened, edited version of this paper was presented at the Sixty-fifth Arizona Town Hall "American Indian Relationships in a Modem Arizona Economy" by Robert A. Hershey, whose expertise, encouragement, and support made this article possible. 1. P.J. PROUDHON, WHAT IS PROPERTY? AN INQUIRY INTO THE PRINCIPLES OF RIGHT AND OF GOVERNMENT 11-12 (B.R. Tucker trans. 1966) (Paris 1840). In the author's opinion, this slogan is at the heart of all property issues confronting Native American tribes and indigenous communities. 2. Justin Hughes, The Philosophy of Intellectual Property, 77 GEO. L.J. 287, 288 (1988). 3. Suzan Shown Harjo, Native Peoples' Culturaland Human Rights: An UnfinishedAgenda, 24 ARIz. ST. L.J. 321, 328 (1992). 4. Statement of the International Alliance of the Indigenous-Tribal Peoples of the Tropical Forests, Penang, Malaysia (Feb. 15, 1992). The coordinating committee of IAITPTF included: COICA (Amazonia); Associacion Cultural Sehekto (Central America and Caribbean); Centro Mocovi 'lalek Lav'a' (Sountem Cone-Argentina); Association for the Promotion of Batwa (Africa); Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights (Continental Asia); Sahabat Alam Malaysia (Malaysia); KAMP-National Federation of the Indigenous Peoples of the Philippines (Maritime Published by University of Oklahoma College of Law Digital Commons, 1995 AMERICAN INDIAN LAW REVIEW [Vol. 20 comprehensive recognition for protection of the intellectual property of indigenous peoples is the Draft Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which states: "Indigenous peoples have the right to special measures for protection, as intellectual property, of their traditional cultural manifestations, such as their literature, designs, visual and performing arts, cultigens, medicines, and knowledge of the useful properties of fauna and flora."' Thus, in the United States, Native American tribal councils and communities are beginning to ask the question as to whether their intellectual property, as they perceive their intellectual property to exist, can be protected. This article seeks to explore the issue of whether Native American tribes can protect themselves from the increased appropriation of their intellectual property under existing U.S. law.6 Part 1[introduces the reader to the intriguing world of intellectual property and the distinction between Native American intellectual versus cultural property. Part II focuses on existing patent, copyright, and trademark law in the United States and whether Native American tribes can utilize those laws to protect their intellectual property: Section A summarizes existing patent law and examines the lack of protection for Native traditional seeds and folk crop varieties; Section B summarizes copyright law and illustrates the lack of protection for Native cultural images and expressions. Section C summarizes trademark law and analyzes whether Native American tribal names can be Asia and the Pacific). 5. U.N. WORKING GROUP ON RiHTs OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, DRAFT UNIVERSAL DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES at 35, U.N. Doc. EICN.4/Sub.2/ 1991/40/Rev. 1 (1991). This document is still in the drafting stages and carries no legal force upon those who do not sign the final version. Further, in the international arena: the Organization of American States issued a convention which recognized state ownership of cultural property, see ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES, CONVENTION ON THE PROTECTION OF THE ARCHEOLOGICAL, HISTORICAL, AND ARTISTIC HERITAGE OF THE AMERICAN NATIONS (Convention of San Salvador 1976); the Coordinadora de las Organizaciones Indigenas de Ia Cuenca Amazonica (COICA: Coordinating Body of the Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin) has issued an agenda which demands that there be no development projects in indigenous areas without the informed consent of the indigenous peoples affected, see Coordinating Body of the Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin, Agenda for the Bilateral and Multilateral Funders of Amazon Development (1989); the FAO Commission on Plant Genetic Resources issued a draft providing standards of ethical field behavior for germplasm collectors and maintains that sponsors, curators, and users have long-term responsibilities, see FAO COMMISSION ON PLANT GENETIC RESOURCES, DRAFT OF INTERNATIONAL CODE OF CONDUCr FOR PLANT GERMPLASM COLLECTING AND TRANSFER (1991). 6. This article is intended as an introduction to intellectual property law for Native American tribal councils, communities and advocates as they consider alternatives for the protection of (...truncated)