Celebrating Culture: IP & Arts Festivals

• Author: Brigitte Vézina
• Position: Legal Officer, Traditional Creativity, Cultural Expressions and Cultural Heritage Section, WIPO
• Pages: 27-30

WIPO / MAGAZINE Traditional Knowledge / p–27

CELEBR ATING

CU LTU R E

IP & Arts Festivals

Arts festivals are a cultu ral highlight in many towns, cities and countries worl dwide.

Celebrations of the richnes s and diversity of culture and creativity, they often encom -

pass a variety of contempora ry and traditional art forms – da nce, music, theatre, arts

and crafts. Culturally, they offer a un ique snapshot of a community’s identity, both

providing an opportunity to revitalize and preserve cultural practices, and often serving

as a creative laboratory for co ntemporary pe rformers. Socially, they are a means of

strengthening intercultural dialogue, promoting deeper understanding through shared

experience; and econom ically, they can generate sizeable, long-term nancial benets

and signicant business and employment opportunities. For example, the Edinburgh

Festival, the world’s largest arts festival, inje cts annually some US$269million into

Scotland’s economy. Effective intellectual proper ty (IP) management is an importa nt

aspect of the planning proc ess that organizers need to address to safeguard a nd

promote the event’s interests and those of festival partic ipants.

WIPO works with organizers of events, such a s the Festival of Pacic Arts to be held

in the Solomon Islands in Ju ly 2012, to help them develop appropriate IP manage-

ment strategies and tools to deal with th e IP issues that can arise before, during

and after such events. This ar ticle identies the main IP challenges orga nizers face

and outlines some practic al ways of dealing with them.

NO IP STRATEGY – A RISKY BU SINESS

The unique cultural pe rformances and displays of par ticipating artists, performers

and artisans draw pub lic interest and build the reputation of a cultural event. Withou t

appropriate safeguards, these works are vulnerable to unauthorized exploitation by

outsiders. With digita l cameras at hand, for example, audiences can easily c apture

high-quality reco rdings of these performances. Many p erformers, unaware of their

IP rights, often learn that un authorized copies of their works – many of which co ntain

culturally-sensitive materia l – have been used by third parties without the ir consent

and in an inappropriate mann er.

Neglecting to implement a co mprehensive IP strategy also exposes festival aud iences

to the risk of being duped into purchasi ng fake arts and crafts. Such oppor tunistic

business practices d amage the continuing interests, reputation and popu larity of

the event itself.

by Brigitte Vézina, Legal Oc er,

Traditional Creativity, Cultural Expressions

and Cultura l Heritage Section , WIPO

Photo: Secretariat of the Pacic Community

Performers at the Fes tival of Pacic A rts.

ese events are c elebrations of the rich ness

and diversit y of culture and c reativity.

