Research & Article

This study is a Qualitative Research. The purposes of this study were to 1) acknowledge characteristic, principle of rights and the pathway relating to protection of Traditional Knowledge (TK), 2) analyze Thai and Indian laws relating to protection of TK, and 3) use analytical result as guideline in developing administration system relating to TK and development of laws for protection of TK.

The researcher had studied and analyzed Thai and Indian TK, and found that both countries have no specific laws (sui generis) for protection of their TK since the TK in the two countries is diverse and relate to the use of resources and biological variety, knowledge on plant and herbal germplasm, treatment method and cultural heritage. Furthermore, with regard to international practice for protection of TK, there is no international agreement to directly protect TK and provide full coverage for all TK. Therefore, it is necessary for the two countries which are the sources of biological resource and TK to enact national laws for protection of certain types of TK in form of specific laws and intellectual property protection laws. The result of this comparison can sum up that India has centralized administration system related to biological resources and TK, for example, the laws relating to biological variety stipulate that there shall be agencies being established to take charge of biological variety in national, government and community levels, and there shall also be database that collects knowledge and wisdom on Indian traditional medicine. For Thailand, there is segmented administration system related to biological resources and TK based on responsibility of each agency which results in redundancy and lack of cooperation between agencies. The researcher therefore has certain suggestion as follows: principles of community and farmers’ rights should be established in order to share rights in TK, and laws on TK protection should be specifically enacted.