Traditional Knowledge Digital Library: What could we Learn from India?

Abstract

Abstract Should we protect and preserve traditional knowledge? There is no doubt that the answer ‘yes’ has been given by many academics, government agencies, industries, lay man, and especially the holder or guardian of traditional knowledge itself both in Thailand and around the world.2 The most important question to be asked is “How to protect traditional knowledge?” The selection of systems and methods for traditional knowledge protection is still widely debated. Different strategies have been proposed ranging from horizontal to vertical, self-protection to legal protection, human rights to intellectual property rights, manual to technological, and national level to international level. The need to preserve the existence, promote the use and prevent the misuse or misappropriation of traditional knowledge combine with the absence of an effective suigeneris system for the protection of traditional knowledge at both the international and national, calls for a deeper understanding. Thus, the Indian traditional knowledge digital library that could not only preserve, but also prevent misappropriation of, traditional knowledge has been selected as an alternative measure to be examined in this paper.