Welcome to our blog for Intellectual Property Law and Practice in Latin America!
¡Bienvenidos a nuestro blog de Derecho y Práctica de la Propiedad Intelectual en Latinoamérica!
Bem-vindo ao nosso blog sobre Direito e Prática de Propriedade Intelectual na América Latina!

Sunday, 14 May 2023

IPTango

Encounter 27, Intellectual Property: A Key Tool for Museums


On 17 May 2023, FIDE (Legal and Business Research Foundation) and TIPSA (Transatlantic Intellectual Property Academy) will hold the Encounter 27, Intellectual Property: A Key Tool for Museums.

The panellists are Professors Laurent Manderieux (Bocconi University), Yolanda Bergel Sainz de Baranda (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid) and Dr. sc. Haris Hasić* (University of Travnik). Jur. dr. Ulrika Wennersten (Lund University) will moderate the session.

The suggested readings and the report on the session will be available on the Global Digital Encounters (GDE) website as time goes by.

The Encounter is offered free of charge, but registration is required. Register here now!

If you missed previous Encounters or you want to watch them again, click here.

Credit: The image is courtesy of FIDE.

Update: new speaker* has joined the panel. 

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Tuesday, 28 March 2023

Verónica Rodríguez Arguijo

7th Session of the WIPO Conversation on IP & Frontier Technologies: IP and the Metaverse


The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) will hold the Seventh Session of the WIPO Conversation on Intellectual Property and Frontier Technologies (formerly WIPO Conversation on IP and AI) on 29 and 30 March 2023.

The theme of the seventh session is “IP and the Metaverse”, aiming to bring together stakeholders to discuss the challenges the metaverse may pose to the IP system. The broad spectrum of frontier technologies enabling the metaverse, like AI, blockchain and the NFTs, AR and VR technologies, the Internet of Things and data processing, will be addressed.

The agenda comprises the following topics:
  • “All information looks like noise until you break the code” – Decoding the Metaverse.
  • Blueprints, plans and IP stories from the architects building the Metaverse.
  • Economics of the Metaverse.
  • Living, working and playing in the Metaverse: IP stories from the Metaverse.
  • A multiverse of IP issues.
  • The Future of IP in the digital economy and a fully virtual world.
  • DAOs, NFTs, smart contracts and other fantastic beasts and IP.
  • Playing games and knowing the IP score: content and more in the Metaverse.
  • Jurisdiction and enforcing IP rights in the Metaverse.
  • Realizing the potential of the Metaverse.
  • Sharing session (Member States and IP Offices) – Open floor interventions and discussion: exchange of current practices between IP Offices on work around the Metaverse.
  • Open floor interventions (all participants).
The list of speakers is available here. The event will be held in a hybrid format. Registration was open for WIPO members & Observers (onsite) and a wider audience (virtual). If you haven’t registered, the live webcast of the session will be available here.

If you have a craving for more WIPO on IP and AI, do not forget to review here a list of sources at the bottom of the article.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.
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Friday, 17 March 2023

Patricia Covarrubia

Trademark Infringement and Online Environment - let's make sure our research is up-to-date and writing with a purpose

    No comments:
This is my personal intake on the symposium I attended last week.

On Thursday the 9th (March 2023) I attended as a guest, the

Trademark Infringement and Online Environment Symposium/ Workshop.
The invitation came directly from Prof Xuemei Bian who together with David Humphries from UK IPO, are working on understanding the counterfeit market online and to propose a strategy. The project is funded by the British Academy and while this is based on UK, I thought the same is applicable to all jurisdictions as the online world is without frontiers. 

The guests and speakers came from different backgrounds, and different industries e.g., IPO, enforcement bodies (police), Law, Criminology, data analytics, marketing, Procter and Gamble, and Alibaba. The symposium took, and the project as such takes, into consideration consultations, advise and research focusing on collaboration for actionable solutions (aka interdisciplinary / cross sectors).

Xuemei & David opened the floor to provide us with a general view on the rationale of the work they are doing and what they are aiming at. For instance, this was the second symposium / workshops that they have organised, they have done plenty of literature review based on data /statistics looking at a better understanding, that is, to identify what has been done, what is missing, and to question if the available research done up to today, is relevant. This was a moment of reflection for me: could it be that we academics are focusing too much on the research part rather that its purpose? David noted that it is crucial to understand the economic and societal influence of social media and counterfeiting. He emphasised that research can make a difference, but it seems that academia works in silos – again, this was a reflection moment for me. He continued to note that the IPO and his role is to take a ‘helicopter approach’ (looking at the overall context); noting that it is evident that protection isn’t great and there is a need to work with the evidence and establish a counterfeit strategy (Look at the Intellectual Property Counter-Infringement Strategy 2022 to 2027 here). 

Evaluation of the IPO counter-infringement strategy 
Marianna Lemus-Boskovitch, and Teodora Lazar, from BOP Consulting presented their research from the consumer perspective; advertising communication and how consumers react and its impact – based on counterfeits. They have done interviews to gather what sources are available and did a data gap analysis showing indicators to build upon. This was done to test what material / information is out there, stating that they did a theory approach. David closed this part of the session by indicating that ‘monitoring and evaluation’ is a good start! 

Online / Social media IP infringement 
David Shepherd, Senior Lecturer in Economic Crime, University of Portsmouth presented ‘The impact of complicit social media influencers on consumption of counterfeit goods in the UK’. After showering us with charts, and statistics, I could be bias to report what I got from his presentation: women are more cautious when buying online than men! David run a survey during 2021 in both sexes and covering 16-60 yrs. old. The survey showed that 31% of men purchased endorsed counterfeits while women 13%. In any case, the majority knew they were buying a counterfeit. What is of worry, which I do agree, is that there are certain product categories, that are dangerous e.g., batteries and beauty product (due to the chemical components). He also acknowledged that there is a percentage of buyers that are ‘hunters of counterfeits’ [was I under a rock that I did not know much about it?]. The survey also revealed that we are susceptibility to trust others e.g., family, friends, and influencers, and their influence varies as it seems to be age related. Another part of the survey showed that the rationale of consumers to purchase counterfeits there was a correlation when ‘price is high, and the quality is not important’. 

Ronald Brohm, managing director at REACT, intervened to talk about his experience noting that the ‘online world’ and the ‘trading’ includes apps, social media, stating that legislation is behind. Notices of ‘take down’ to links, and hiding links, seems straightforward but it gets complicated with apps and social media. A burden encountered with, is the definition of what ‘trade’ is. He explained that in China, one need to have a license to trade, and enforcement is less complex as it is easy to identify traders; and while the system is not perfect, this practice shows a good practice. Tackling global online / social media counterfeiting -technology and implications.
Dennis Collopy, Senior Research Fellow, University of Hertfordshire, spoke about artificial intelligence and IPRs enforcement (IPO commissioned this research in 2021) how to use AI in the matter of copyright, trade marks and trade secrets infringements. He has done a literature review on the matter and conducted a survey by interviewing different individuals, e.g., from the judiciary, NGOs, etc. Looking at data mining it seems that there is a big challenge regarding training data and to use just ‘clean’ data rather than bias, and noticed the lack of transparency (due to the black box) and in general about the quantity and quality of data fed. Data must be updated constantly, needs retraining, to follow GDP compliance, finally, concluding the session, his point noted the need of a ‘revolution on Data Quality’ and that, in his opinion, the AI challenges that are identified exceeded the number of opportunities [I personally believe that we get to excited about AI without reflecting the risks] . 

Sharon [left] Andrew [right]
From the point of view of Andrew Masterson, a member of the PIPCU team, City of London Police he presented his experience, but also noted that how can the law enforcement rely on the AI due to the matters raised by Dennis. Another matter that was noted by Sharon Penketh, Manager Global Brand Protection eBusiness, at Procter & Gamble, is whether companies have the resources to apply AI.

Improving IP protection and enforcement in the digital economy
Muhammad Asif Khan and Yu Ye, Assistant Professor in & Lecturer in Digital Marketing, from Northumbria University presented ‘The findings of a comprehensive systematic literature review on Trademark Infringement in the online as opposed to offline economy’. They did a systematic literature review on trade mark infringement – what information is available on this by business and management, computer science and law, extending to industry report/data. Some of the keywords used were infringement, duplicate, imitation, competing, replica, copycat, counterfeit, fake. They noted the next step will be text mining: such as a key themes and gaps in the literature; to analyse the structure of the data; and to raise potential approaches. During the talk, I was made aware of Leximancer, did you know about this? a platform that analyses text documents and in the case of IP it does an advanced trade mark similarity assessment models [did I get this info right?].

Claudio Bergonzi, Director Global IP enforcement, at Alibaba Group, concentrated in four points: 
1) establishing good programmes – what IPRs are there;
2) proactive use of AI; 
3) offline corporation – law enforcement (what is behind, distribution networks); and 
4)cooperation with rightsholders. 
For instance, he mentioned the quantity of consumers they have, in how many countries they put their products on, and how many they deal with by day. For them, it is essential to know what IPRs there are and to whom they belong to and emphasised the importance of cooperation from traders. Noted that Alibaba uses AI, and they continuously feed data. They also work heavily on identifying legitimate products – and work also on counterfeit prevention ( by recording images). Talking about fakes, he gave an example which again, I think I am living under a rock!, anyways, he mentioned influencers telling followers like ‘buy this green t-shirt from Alibaba and use this code and you will get a fake [luxury fashion brand bag]’ what?!!! He continued to cover the matter of fake reviews –which is feeding to AI.

The two posters on display
The day closed with ‘Seed corns for collaborative projects – the findings of PhD research project’. Sadia Haque, PhD Researcher, Northumbria University presented ‘Brand protection marketing campaign messages, do they work and why?’ Jaishree Prasad, PhD Researcher, Northumbria University presented ‘Why should we even care about brand infringement when our brand is not counterfeited?’ I had the opportunity to speak to them before their presentation as they displayed their posters during the coffee breaks and lunch time. Both junior researchers were enthusiastic about their topics, as well as to be close to finishing this chapter of their life, a PhD. Their topics were topical to the workshop as they presented both quantitative and qualitative research on the matter of counterfeit. Jaishree made reflect upon one of her many findings, which is that the ‘impact of non-luxury brands in the sale of counterfeit bags is greater than to the luxury brands.’ And it does make sense, because rather than expending $50 in a bag from a high street shop, a consume can get from same price, a fake luxury fashion brand bag. It does harm the non-luxury shop as the consumer is their regular, that consumer will NOT buy the original luxury one. Sadia’s examined the messages delivered by campaigns to stop counterfeiting; one of her early conclusions, based on evidence, is that the ‘force’ of the message to make an impact should vary depending on the receiver. This means that we consumers, receive messages differently in accordance to our background.

A very fruitful date. Thanks for the invite and looking forward to working with you in any future project. 
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Wednesday, 1 March 2023

IPTango

IViR Summer Course on International Copyright Law and Policy 2023


The Institute for Information Law (IViR) will hold the Summer Course on International Copyright Law and Policy (ICL) from 3 to 7 July 2023 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

The course is taught by renowned scholars and practitioners in the field of copyright law. Faculty is composed of Bernt Hugenholtz, Pamela Samuelson, Martin Senftleben, Séverine Dusollier, Daniel Gervais, Remy Chavannes, Sean Flynn, Paul Keller and João Quintais.

ICL is addressed to lawyers, academics, and other professionals. Participants should have some prior knowledge of the area. The programme includes the following topics:
  • International framework of protection and policy issues
  • Trade and investment agreements
  • Authors’ rights and remuneration
  • Copyright exceptions and limitations
  • Collective administration of rights in the digital era
  • Copyright, data and artificial intelligence
  • Intermediary liability and online copyright enforcement
  • Copyright and open information policy: international and EU updates
  • Policy exercise

A boat tour through the canals of Amsterdam and a welcome dinner are also part of the programme!

Register and find more information here!

Credit: the image is courtesy of IViR.
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Wednesday, 22 February 2023

IPTango

Encounter 25, Shaking The Good Old IP Kit: The Metaverse


On 28 February 2023, FIDE (Legal and Business Research Foundation) and TIPSA (Transatlantic Intellectual Property Academy) will hold the Encounter 25, Shaking The Good Old IP Kit: The Metaverse.

The panellists are Dr Ulrike Till (WIPO)*, Paul Przemyslaw Polanski (Kozminski University) and Raquel Xalabarder (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya). Javier Fernández-Lasquetty (Elzaburu) will moderate the session.

The suggested readings and the report on the session will be available on the Global Digital Encounters (GDE) website as time goes by.

The Encounter is offered free of charge, but registration is required. Register here now!

If you missed previous Encounters or you want to watch them again, click here.

Credit: The image is courtesy of FIDE.

Update: new speaker* has joined the panel. 

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Tuesday, 13 December 2022

Patricia Covarrubia

[GUEST POST] The Wiki Law Project: The use of open-source technologies in the dissemination of Intellectual Property and their benefits for teaching

    No comments:
The IPTango is pleased to host the following post by Hernán Núñez Rocha, lecturer at the University of Alcalá and a qualified lawyer in Spain and Ecuador.

Hernan writes:


The use of open-source technologies in the dissemination of Intellectual Property and their benefits for teaching

by Hernán Núñez Rocha


The Wiki Law Project took place from 2013 to 2019 in Ecuador, where several governmental actors were discussing about the necessity to move from an economy based on the exploitation of natural resources to a model based on knowledge CITA.  The involved parts concluded that it was necessary to promulgate new regulations on Higher Education, Science, Technology, Innovation, Intellectual Property, and Traditional Knowledge.  Considering the instrumental use of Intellectual Property, the IPRs were defined as one of the main tools needed for the transition to the knowledge economy. But there was a problem, most citizens were not familiar with IPR.  In fact, even most stakeholders neither understood the importance of IPRs, nor the use of new works and technologies.  Also, there was an additional problem, stakeholders, who were aware of the importance of IPRs, were divided into two groups that had opposed views. One group saw the IPRs as a profitable tool for their creations, and the other group, saw it as an obstacle for innovation.


Consequently, the idea of the Wiki Law Project about IP came up.  The site was developed jointly by the staff of the Instituto de Altos Estudios Nacionales (IAEN), NGOs, professional associations, chambers, and public institutions.  Moreover, the Ecuadorian Patent and Trademark Office (now SENADI) and the Ministry of Higher Education (SENESCYT) got involved and support the project.


The wiki was hosted in the domain of the Ministry of Higher Education, as http://coesc.educacionsuperior.gob.ec/. The site explained didactically all the IPRs and its main features, its daily uses, and its economic, scientific, and legal significance.  Also, the project included a juridical analysis of the IP Law in forced at that time, as well as a proposal of a draft Law.  The wiki had a basic design, based on the Wikipedia interface, and allowed to create an account, review the contents, edit certain texts and create discussion forums.


The wiki was online from 2013 to 2020. However, the period of greatest activity was from its launch in March of 2013 to October of 2016, when the new IP regime was approved within the Organic Code for the Social Knowledge and Innovation Economy, known as the “CÓDIGO INGENIOS”.  According to the wiki managers, there were more than 1.8 million visits and more than 38 thousand editions, in that period.  Additionally, the wiki generated a domino effect, and suddenly the IPR were in the public opinion.  A survey conducted by the IP Office reflected a growth in the news about intellectual property of more than 600% in the period of June 2014 to June 2016.


After the approval of the CÓDIGO INGENIOS, the wiki continued online, but the users’ interactions were gradually decreasing until 2020 when the wiki was finally switched off.  Despite this, the impact generated by the wiki in their first years was gradually moved to other places in the remaining years. The Academia was one of the main receivers of the benefits of this project.  If we analyse the statistics since the wiki was launched, it is possible to identify a significant and constant growth in the following aspects:

          There was an increase in the number of Technology and Innovation Support Centres located at the universities. Before the project, there was not any Centre according to the WIPO criteria. Today there are 11 universities that have their own Technology Transfer Office.

          Regarding the use of the IPR into the Universities, there is a growth in the average that goes from 1.3 patent applications until 2012 to 27.5 in the period 2012-2019.

          Regarding IP teaching, IP Master's programs increased from 1 to 5 nationwide.

          The number of IP courses in the curriculum of the universities also increased. Before the Wiki Law Project, only 7 universities offered the course of intellectual property as an elective subject, now there are 25 that have the course as a compulsory subject.  Before, it was only taught in the Law School, now there are IP courses in 8 different careers.

          Regarding final degree projects, a study conducted in 5 Ecuadorian universities shows an increase of more than 300% since 2013.


As we can see, the Wiki Law Project was not only a success by itself, but also generated several positive externalities. Nowadays, the information technologies allow us to do great things without a big budget. In the case of the Wiki Law Project, a generic website template with basic functions was enough.  It was not even necessary to get a hosting since the page was hosted in the domain of the Ministry of Higher Education.


The Wiki Law project is an example of the interaction between academia and society, which also generated an academic demand focused on issues related to intellectual property. It was a project without “owners”.  After the idea was launched, many institutions got involved and once the wiki was online, a huge collaborative work was generated.  There are also several papers that describe the Wiki Law as a platform that allows to recuperate the public and common sense of knowledge, throughout collaborative work.


However, the Wiki Law Project is just one example of the use of open-source technologies in the dissemination of intellectual property. What is important here, is not the instrument but the process. This process results in the use of information technologies to spread the general aspects of the IPRs and its daily uses. With this, is possible to create a communication channel in two directions. On one hand, universities can provide information to society; and on the other hand, universities could collect data about social and commercial needs.  Therefore, with the understanding of these facts, universities could adapt their activities and curriculum in line with the expectations of the society.


PS This blog post is based on the presentation made by the author at the 13th Anniversary EIPTN Conference 2021.

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Thursday, 8 December 2022

IPTango

Encounter 23: IP Enforcement and Cybersecurity


On 13 December 2022, FIDE (Legal and Business Research Foundation) and TIPSA (Transatlantic Intellectual Property Academy) will hold the Encounter 23: IP Enforcement and Cybersecurity.

The panellists are Richard Lane (World Intellectual Property Organization) and Prof. Tal Zarsky (University of Haifa’s Faculty of Law). Prof. Manuel Desantes (University of Alicante) will moderate the session.

The suggested readings and the report on the session will be available on the Global Digital Encounters (GDE) website as time goes by.

The Encounter is offered free of charge, but registration is required. Register here now!

If you missed previous Encounters or you want to watch them again, click here.

Credit: The image is courtesy of FIDE.

UPDATE: the recording of Encounter 23 is available here. 

The recording of Encounter 24, "Vintage Brands And The New Bad-Faith Conundrum", is available here.
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Tuesday, 6 December 2022

Patricia Covarrubia

Some news and views from me to you

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I cannot deny that keeping up with the blog has been arduous to say the least. The matter is that joggling between a full-time academic job comes with presenting and attending conferences, writing papers and plenty of responsibilities not only academic but also administrative, and then a house, family, and a bit of Legal consultancy. Aside, the University of Buckingham, where I work, drives, and leads on personal mentorship – and I am proud of it, but it is time and energy consuming. On this fact, I got some news to share, well ...maybe there are not brand new, but indeed good news to share. However, I have to say, that at first, I did not make a fuzz of it, because I do not like to ‘show off’ but on reflection, the idea of obtaining any recognition is to acknowledge, and if someone feels that this is their right path and want to connect with me for further guidance then, I am more than happy to give a hand.

The Kindness & Leadership, 50 Leading Lights UK announced the listees in November, and I am one of them 😉. The campaign “seeks to shine a great big spotlight on leaders who are impacting others through kindness. We see this campaign as a unique chance to build a new status quo, sharing advice and expertise from leaders and recognising the contribution of kind leaders to business, the economy and society.” The 50 listees come from different industries (me as academic) [View the 2022 listees at https:// www.kindnessrules.co.uk/uk/] You can check my statement if you click on my name, and you can also watch a video (1 minute) here.

My second big news is more IP related. The 30th of November came out the e-copy of the edited collection Transboundary Heritage and Intellectual Property Law: Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage. The book took a few years to materialise, but one cannot expect less as the calibre of the authors were of high standard and engaged in their own projects. I was indeed honoured for them to embark with me in this task. For more info on this, check this page


The Book Description reads

Since the Intangible Heritage Convention was adopted by UNESCO in 2003, intangible cultural heritage has increasingly been an important subject of debate in international forums. As more countries implement the Intangible Heritage Convention, national policymakers and communities of practice have been exploring the use of intellectual property protection to achieve intangible cultural heritage safeguarding outcomes.

This book examines diverse cultural heritage case studies from Indigenous communities and local communities in developing and industrialised countries to offer an interdisciplinary examination of topics at the intersection between heritage and property which present cross-border challenges. Analysing a range of case studies which provide examples of traditional knowledge, traditional cultural expressions, and genetic resources by a mixture of practitioners and scholars from different fields, the book addresses guidelines and legislation as well as recent developments about shared heritage to identify a progressive trend that improves the understanding of intangible cultural heritage.

Considering all forms of intellectual property, including patents, copyright, design rights, trade marks, geographical indications, and sui generis rights, the book explores problems and challenges for intangible cultural heritage in crossborder situations, as well as highlighting positive relationships and collaborations among communities across geographical boundaries. Transboundary Heritage and Intellectual Property Law: Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage will be an important resource for practitioners, scholars, and students engaged in studying intangible cultural heritage, intellectual property law, heritage studies, and anthropology.

Some of the chapters cover specifically Latin America

Chapter 3 ‘Scaling up and down the edible heritage: Food and foodways as terrains of cultural friction ‘by Raúl Matta, focusing on Mexico cuisine

Chapter 7 ‘Colombian/Panamanian molas: Coping with the challenges posed in protecting and commercialising transboundary intangible cultural heritage’ by Florelia Vallejo-Trujillo

Chapter 8 ‘The ‘Pisco War’: A Chilean-Peruvian conflict at the crossroads of an intellectual property regime and intangible cultural heritage’ by Bernardo Alarcón Porflidtt

Chapter 11 ‘Knitting a future for the Aymara’s weavers: The Andean project’ by Patricia Covarrubia


Hope you forgive me for not being as prompt with news and views in the blog as it should be, this has been a crazy year! And as always, please do contact me if you think you have what we need to make this blog shine with news once again.

 

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Tuesday, 8 November 2022

IPTango

Encounter 22, Open Science and Intellectual Property: The Dilemma


On 10 November 2022, FIDE (Legal and Business Research Foundation) and TIPSA (Transatlantic Intellectual Property Academy) will hold the Encounter 22, Open Science and Intellectual Property: The Dilemma.

The panellists are Richard Gold (James McGill), Roberto Caso (Italian Association for Open Science) and Julien Cabay (ULB). Prodromos Tsiavos (Athena Research and Innovation Centre) will moderate the session.

The suggested readings and the report on the session will be available on the Global Digital Encounters (GDE) website as time goes by.

The Encounter is offered free of charge, but registration is required. Register here now!

If you missed previous Encounters or you want to watch them again, click here.

Credit: The image is courtesy of FIDE.

UPDATE: the recording of Encounter 22 is available here. 
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Thursday, 27 October 2022

Patricia Covarrubia

Mexico: Plagiarism and traditional cultural expression

    No comments:
I received an email yesterday morning with a link to the BBC Latin America News. I am always skeptical to open links due to virus (are you not?). On second thoughts, I read the link and it was clear that was a verified page and when I clicked there were some juice news for our blog 😊 The heading reads: “Ralph Lauren apologises after Mexico indigenous 'plagiarism' claim”. My reaction was, not again! It has become usual to see big business appropriating cultural designs. But I wonder whether this is due to social media and we, as a society, are more aware of it. The era of globalization surely has made us more aware of what is going on in every corner, but also may have brought in us an appetite for merchandise that is only available in certain regions, or cultures [would you agree?]. 

Back to the news. 
The wife of the Mexican President wrote on Instagram below the photo of the claimed item
“Hey Ralph: we already realized that you really like Mexican designs, especially those that are elaborated by ancestral cultures that preserve textile tradition. However, by copying these designs you incur in plagiarism, and as you know, plagiarism is illegal and immoral. At least acknowledge it. And hopefully you will compensate the damage to the original communities that do this work with love and not for millionaire profit. @ralphlauren (These designs are by Contla and Saltillo.)”
[translation, my own] 

Let’s put our IP hat on: is this plagiarism? Is there an infringement? Traditional cultural expression as such is not protected under the umbrella of IP. Yet, WIPO’s Intergovernmental Committee (IGC) on IP and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore is working on an international instrument for their protection. [for the drafts go to this page here). The matter is that IP has a period of protection (full stop). That is the terrible reality that traditional knowledge in general suffers. Added to this, is the fact that even if it were protected by let’s say copyright, there is the argument of ‘inspiration’ that designers rely heavily on. However, there is a fine line between ‘inspiration’ and ‘copy’, and this has been reflected more in recent years (or at least we have become aware of it). 
For instance, three months ago, we brought to you the news of Mexico vs Shein, for a garment deemed to be copied by the latter which contained Mayan’s traditional culture. Two years ago, we also posted about the Guna people in Panama vs Nike which contained a ‘mola’ design. I am sure there is not enough space to tell you all about this situation that seems to happen all over again, and again. 

Back to the news
Ralph Lauren has apologised and noted that months ago they remove it and were surprised to see the final products on display. This may be the end of the story, but not for the communities around the world. While waiting for the WIPO international instruments, there is nothing stopping governments to pass their own national laws protecting their traditional knowledge. Yet, this would be protection on their national territory, I am afraid, but at least, it is something. 

The suspicious link sent here.
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