The Knowledge Transfer Office,
in collaboration with TECHNIS research group and TIME Master’s in Business Economics organise their 10th Seminar for 2021-2022 on Tuesday April 12 at 13.00.

Speaker: Jocelyn Bosse, The Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London. 

Seminar
title:  “Claiming the Kakadu Plum: Trademark law and indigenous
rights to plants”.

Please go to: https://zoom.us/j/96479541729
Meeting ID: 964 7954 1729

Abstract: Who should
control the Kakadu plum (Terminalia ferdinandiana)? The name refers to a native
Australian tree that produces a small, green fruit, known to Aboriginal people
for its food and medicinal uses. The fruit became important to the cosmetics
and food industries after Australian scientists showed the fruit to have the
highest content of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) in the world.

The Kakadu plum is one of many plants that have been embroiled in
allegations of “biopiracy,” a polemical term which describes the use of
intellectual property claims to expropriate biodiversity and traditional
knowledge, without the consent of, or compensation to, the relevant Indigenous
or local community. However, many activists and scholars who criticise the
intellectual property system for facilitating the appropriation of Indigenous
or traditional knowledge have narrowly focused their attention on patent law,
with the consequence that proposed solutions to the problem of biopiracy (such
as access and benefit sharing laws) have not addressed the role of other forms
of intellectual property.

By comparing the arguments raised during trade mark opposition
proceedings in Australia and the United States about the word mark “KAKADU
PLUM,” the paper highlights the importance of the legal requirements for
registration of a trade mark in protecting the rights and interests of
Aboriginal communities to their plants and knowledge. From this vantage point,
the paper reviews the recent trade mark law reform proposals from the
Australian intellectual property office (IP Australia) to introduce additional
protections for Indigenous words and knowledge.