LIMA — May 31-June 3. The International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI) will hold the second in a series of training workshops on the use of intellectual property to protect and promote traditional arts and crafts.
The workshop is the result of ongoing collaboration between IIPI and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and is intended to narrow an important knowledge gap. Although many traditional artistic expressions are protected by intellectual property rights, such as copyrights and trademarks, artists often do not know how to effectively exercise those rights. As a result, they may lose control over their art to counterfeiters. Moreover, they may lose out on marketing oportunities since intellectual property rights also have an important promotional function.
The workshop will be held at the Sol de Oro Hotel in Miraflores in Lima, Peru, and will host artists, businessmen, and policymakers from throughout South America. For the invitees, the workshop will provide a unqiue educational opportunity to acquire knowledge about intellectual property rights. Since many traditional artists are women, this knowledge can be an important tool for promoting gender inequalities.
The workshop seeks to build upon the success of the workshop held in Mexico City in November. The Mexico City workshop was attended by nearly one-hundred participants from Belize, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and the United States. A third workshop will be held in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Please direct any inquiries concerning the Lima workshop to info@iipi.org.
Image Håkan Svensson (c) 2004.