Intellectual property (IP)

Intellectual property (IP) can be both a risk and a tool in a Cannabis world emerging from a century of global prohibition. For decades, prohibition blocked recognition of plant-related innovation; today, as laws change at different speeds across countries, unequal IP laws enables predatory practices and the disenfranchisement of local communities custodians of Cannabis crafts, knowledge, know-hows, products, and plant varieties.

The challenge is to avoid repeating old patterns of misappropriation of legacy Cannabis cultures by external stakeholders (or internal, more-powerful ones) while opening:

• effective protections from IP and its misuse and/or
• fair paths for recognition and use of IP collectively for the benefit of the Cannabis communities desiring it.

As elsewhere, the key in IP is the question of consent (free, prior, informed consent) and good faith in sharing ownership, credits, earnings, and other non-monetary benefits.

That is why this page looks at more than patents and trademarks. It includes collective marks, appellations of origin (AO), geographical indications (GI), and other community-based strategies, as well as the emerging work against biopiracy and for Fair and equitable Access and Benefit-Sharing (FABS) on genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, including the Convention on Biological Diversity and its Nagoya Protocol, and the new WIPO GRATK Treaty.

The goal is simple: protect people, plants, and know-how without letting IP become a new form of enclosure over Cannabis cultures, biodiversity, and shared or sacred, delicate or endangered heritage.