Berkeley Technology Law Journal Student Podcast

Origin stories, sacred songs, and other types of sacred traditional knowledge are intangible cultural property belonging to tribes or indigenous people. Intangible cultural property is not merely information–it is essential to tribal way of life. Despite its importance, there are currently no federal laws protecting others from appropriating sacred traditional knowledge. This type of knowledge should seemingly be protected by intellectual property or cultural property laws. Intellectual property laws offer protection for a limited time for works of authorship or inventions as a way to incentivize creation. Cultural property laws, such as the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), offer limited protection for some types of tangible cultural property. Neither IP laws nor NAGPRA protect tribal intangible cultural property. This lack of protection leaves tribal intangible cultural property open to appropriation. Professor Rebecca Tsosie, Regents Professor of Law at the University of Ar