The Protection of Traditional Knowledges, from the International Intellectual Property Law to a sui generis Protection

Traditional knowledges, applied to cultural expressions or biological and genetic resources are subjected to an increasing economic pressure. If their legal protection may be founded on the classical system of intellectual property law, there is no doubt that industrial property law, copyright or related rights and the protection of new variety plants are not sufficient to protect efficiently those traditional knowledges as well as biological or cultural diversity. As a consequence, a sui generis system of protection has been developed in order to ensure equitable sharing of (economic and scientific) benefits arising from the use of such traditional knowledge.