Can Intellectual Property Rights Regime Protect the Interests of Traditional Knowledge?

Traditional knowledge (TK) has been transformed into global knowledge with the pace of globalization which is not threat of TK. Nevertheless; western countries’ exploitation of monopoly rights over this TK without acknowledgement is a crucial matter of concern. Therefore, the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Intergovernmental Committee (WIPO’s IGC) recently is playing a significant role to develop a text based negotiation to protect TK. After analyzing the shortcomings of the existing intellectual property (IP) system, this article scrutinizes the current controversial challenges on TK protection and examines the current IGC’s discussions. This article mainly analyzes the major recommendations of IGC in order to propose guidance for protecting TK through IP in better ways or through alternative forms such as sui generis system. WIPO’s IGC is the prime area in which both developing nations and indigenous communities have claimed their desired aims concerning the interests of TK holders. It ends with some propositions for achieving a result and suggests that now it’s time to go beyond intellectual property rights to settle this controversial issue.