A NEED FOR COMMUNITY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS LAW FOR THE BODO TRIBE OF ASSAM, INDIA

Protecting intellectual property of indigenous community calls for an urgent consideration. Community intellectual property of Bodo tribe is rich in natural and cultural wealth. This urges for inclusive legal right to assist and respond to the needs of Bodo community through effective legal system.A new system of law will ensure better protection to Bodo tribe to protect the originality of their cultural based and traditional based products. Conventional IP laws of India are insufficient because the cultural based products and tradition based items lack in inventiveness, originality and all other technicalities of IP laws. These requirements cannot be met by the Bodo tribe because these properties are in existence since indefinite number of years. From the conventional IP systems point of view traditional knowledge (TK) and traditional cultural expressions (TCE) do not find a place. This is resulting into the commercial exploitation of the TK and TCE originated products. This is the point where community is losing its rights over their own derived products. Thus, it is important that IP rights of Bodo community should be established through rigid legal protections by complying with the binding international conventions.