The meeting on “Protecting Cultural Intellectual Property Rights in Laos: A Way Forward” was organized by the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre (TAEC) and the Lao Handicrafts Association, with support from VOICE. The event drew panellists and participants from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, as well as handicraft businesses, young designers, village artisans, embassies, and non-governmental organisations.
The meeting agreed that protecting the traditional designs of Laos’s ethnic groups is an urgent priority, kicking off with a video about the importance of traditional cultural knowledge in Laos, particularly for rural crafts producers and the tourism sector.
It also highlighted a prominent case in which fashion company Max Mara copied designs from the Oma ethnic group of Phongsaly.
Mr. Saybandith Sayavongkhamdy, of the Department of Intellectual Property (DIP), helped define important legal terms to refer to traditional designs and explained why tools like copyright and trademarks have limited use for traditional handicrafts.
Ms. Thongkhoun Soutthivilay, Co-Director of TAEC, was in attendance to present the project that TAEC has been implementing with the Oma, documenting their traditional designs in a database. This database will then be copyrighted by the Department of Intellectual Property, to help protect the information.
“We should replicate this model for all the artisan communities of Laos, to ensure that they do not get plagiarised as the Oma did,” said Ms. Thongkhoun.
Read the full article at The Laotian Times: https://laotiantimes.com/2021/03/26/lao-government-and-handicraft-stakeholders-pledge-to-protect-traditional-designs-of-laos/?fbclid=IwAR36LZIWvuBlRQpqgHqKNsWHBVtxvNrdWNXIKfeqP2dnPK9XXmUdn5VoaB4
Image: TAEC Co-Director Tara Gujadhur with Oma Artisans.
Tags: cultural heritage, cultural preservation, Lao Handicrafts Association, Laos
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