THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OF SOVEREIGN TRIBES

This article discusses how indigenous groups are using intellectual pr operty rights (IPR) law and how these rights are being expanded. Indig enous groups and their advocates in the United States, Canada, and oth er countries are experimenting aggressively with IPR to solve a keenly felt problem: how to gain control over what outsiders can use of indi genous culture. The main instruments of intellectual property are ill suited for this job; however the applications of IPR for tribal groups are not negligible and are providing some legal protections. Indigeno us groups and their advocates are also conducting an extensive global campaign to modify or supplement existing IPR instruments to make them more useful for protecting traditional culture. In the interim, indig enous groups are relying on measures at the level of their reservation s and tribal governments that, in varying degrees, impose some collect ive control over outsiders' unfettered appropriation of their cultural information.