Experts turn to IP laws to protect folk knowledge

Legal experts are turning to the rules of intellectual property (IP) protection to safeguard the country's crafts, folk medicine and even plant genes against what they say is foreign exploitation.

The Guizhou Provincial Regulation on Traditional Knowledge Protection, the first government-level statute, will help the people said to own folk art forms, traditional knowledge and genetic materials to safeguard their rights, Yao Xin, an official with the Rule, Regulation and Law Department under the State Intellectual Property Office, said.

Examples of potential IP issues vary widely.

Japanese and Korean companies have been analyzing the molecular make-up of guanyin cao, a type of grass used by generations of Miao ethnic people in Guizhou to cure cold and bronchial diseases. Chinese drug makers could suffer large economic losses if foreign researchers patent therapies based on the plant.

Another tradition is the Miao ethnic dress, which some in China see as "wearing history". These garments, famous for their elegant design and delicate needlework techniques passed down generations, have become a popular collectible among foreign art hunters.

More than 180 magnificent Miao garments are on display at a private museum in Paris, including 15 rare pieces used for sacrificial rites.

That is larger than the collection in the garment's hometown of Guizhou, Lei Xiuwu, researcher of Miao and Dong ethnic culture in Guizhou, said.

Within 100 years, Lei said, "Chinese people may have to go abroad if they want to study the Miao ethnic culture."

Plants are at issue, too. Gene "hunters" and folk art collectors are among those looking to profit from China's unique flora, fauna and cultural reserves.

Of the 20,140 plant resources that the United States was said to have imported from China as of June 30, 2002, there were 4,452 varieties of soybean, including 168 wild strains.

However, only 2,177 plants were approved for export by Chinese authorities as of that date, and wild soybeans were not even on the list, Wu Xiaoqing, deputy head of the State Environmental Protection Administration, said.

That explains why China, the native soil of soybeans and home to more than 90 percent of global wild soybean resources, is now the world's largest importer of the crop. The majority of China's soybean resources have been patented by other countries.

In addition, Japan has patented 210 prescriptions listed in two ancient Chinese medical books.

To curb these practices, which many in China see as theft, experts from the Provincial Academy of Social Sciences and local universities spent nearly two years conducting field research in more than 40 counties while they drew up the rules.

The draft is now subject to comment and review before it is submitted to the local legislature for approval in the second quarter of next year.

The regulation stipulates that any foreign organization or individual who studies, uses or develops traditional knowledge concerning genetic material without the approval of the owners must pay between 50,000 yuan and 100,000 yuan ($13,500) in compensation.