Indigenous intellectual property is a term used in national and international forums to describe intellectual property held to be collectively owned by various Indigenous peoples, and by extension, their legal rights to protect specific such property. This property includes cultural knowledge of their groups and many aspects of their cultural heritage and knowledge, including that held in oral history. In Australia, the term Indigenous cultural and intellectual property, abbreviated as ICIP, is commonly used.

There have been various efforts made since the late 20th century towards providing some kind of legal protection for indigenous intellectual property in colonized countries, including a number of declarations made by various conventions of Indigenous peoples. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) was created in 1970 to promote and protect intellectual property across the world by cooperating with countries as well as international organizations. The UN's Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), passed by the General Assembly in 2007 with 143 countries in favour, includes several clauses relating specifically to the protection of intellectual property of Indigenous peoples.

Disputes around indigenous intellectual property include several cases involving the Māori people of New Zealand.

Background Indigenous intellectual property is a concept that has developed as an analog to predominantly western concepts of intellectual property law, and has been promoted by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), as part of a broader effort by the United Nations (UN) to see the world's indigenous, intangible cultural heritage better valued and better protected against perceived, ongoing mistreatment, based on legal theories holding them to be inadequately covered by Western law.DODSON, Page 12.

Indigenous knowledge is an integral part of Indigenous cultural heritage. Knowledge about land, seas, places and associated songs, stories, social practices, and oral traditions are important assets for Indigenous communities. Transmitted from generation to generation, Indigenous knowledge is constantly reinterpreted by Indigenous people. Through the existence and transmission of this intangible cultural heritage, Indigenous people are able to associate with a communal identity

Indigenous intellectual property rights relate to the legal rights to protect specific such property, which includes cultural knowledge of their groups, aspects of their cultural heritage in the visual arts, literature, and performing arts, as well as science and traditional medicines. It may include knowledge held in oral history.Ann Marie Sullivan, Cultural Heritage & New Media: A Future for the Past, 15 J. MARSHALL REV. INTELL. PROP. L. 604 (2016)

International bodies such as the UN have become involved in the issue, making more specific declarations that intellectual property also includes cultural property such as historical sites, artifacts, designs, language, ceremonies, and performing arts in addition to artwork and literature.

Nation states across the world have experienced difficulties reconciling local indigenous laws and cultural norms with a predominantly western legal system, in many cases leaving Indigenous peoples' individual and communal intellectual property rights largely unprotected.

The Native American Rights Fund (NARF) has set out several goals around treaty law and intellectual property, with board member Professor Rebecca Tsosie stressing the importance of these property rights being held collectively, not by individuals:

The long-term goal is to actually have a legal system, and certainly a treaty could do that, that acknowledges two things. Number one, it acknowledges that Indigenous peoples are peoples with a right to self-determination that includes governance rights over all property belonging to the Indigenous people. And, number two, it acknowledges that Indigenous cultural expressions are a form of intellectual property and that traditional knowledge is a form of intellectual property, but they are collective resources – so not any one individual can give away the rights to those resources. The tribal nations actually own them collectively.

Terminology A term used especially in Australia is "Indigenous cultural and intellectual property", abbreviated as ICIP Index and PDFs here. with the term cultural heritage often applying to the same concept. The term "Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property Rights" is abbreviated as ICIPR.

Traditional cultural expressions "Traditional cultural expressions" is a phrase used by WIPO to refer to "any form of artistic and literary expression in which traditional culture and knowledge are embodied. They are transmitted from one generation to the next, and include handmade textiles, paintings, stories, legends, ceremonies, music, songs, rhythms and dance".

"Traditional cultural expressions" can include designs and styles, which means that applying traditional Western-style international copyright lawswhich apply to a specific work, rather than a stylecan be problematic. Indigenous customary law often treats such concepts differently, and may apply restrictions upon the use of underlying styles and concepts.

Declarations A number of Native American and First Nations communities have issued tribal declarations over the past 35 years. In the lead up to and during the UN International Year for the World's Indigenous Peoples (1993), then during the following UN Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples (1995–2004), a number of conferences of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous specialists were held in different parts of the world, resulting in a number of unified declarations and statements identifying, explaining, refining, and defining "indigenous intellectual property" though the legal weight of most has yet to be tested.

Since the 1970s, inter-tribal groups in North American have organized demonstrations against non-Native use of Native American cultural elements, such as the sale of products and services allegedly derived from Indigenous knowledge.Hagan, Helene E. "The Plastic Medicine People Circle." Sonoma Free County Press. Accessed 31 January 2013: "Shequish...came to the attention of Native American people two years ago as an impostor who pretended to have Shumash ancestry... Shumash people took the decision to put a stop to Shequish Ohoho's activities in the Bay area as an 'Indian woman.' A group of real Indian women of San Francisco led a protest against Shequish and effectively terminated her money making seminars and ceremonies in this area."Sieg, Katrin, Ethnic Drag: Performing Race, Nation, Sexuality in West Germany; University of Michigan Press (20 August 2002) p.232

Traditional Elders Circle, October 1980 Before ceremonies and ceremonial knowledge were affirmed as protected intellectual property by the UN General Assembly, smaller coalitions of Indigenous cultural leaders met to issue declarations about protection of ceremonial knowledge.Yellowtail, Tom, et al; "Resolution of the 5th Annual Meeting of the Traditional Elders Circle" Northern Cheyenne Nation, Two Moons' Camp, Rosebud Creek, Montana; 5 October 1980Mesteth, Wilmer, et al (10 June 1993) "Declaration of War Against Exploiters of Lakota Spirituality." "At the Lakota Summit V, an international gathering of US and Canadian Lakota, Dakota and Nakota (LDN) Nations, about 500 representatives from 40 different tribes and bands of the LDN peoples unanimously passed a "Declaration of War Against Exploiters of Lakota Spirituality." The following declaration was unanimously passed."Taliman, Valerie (1993) "Article On The 'Lakota Declaration of War'." In 1980, spiritual leaders of the Northern Cheyenne, Navajo, Hopi, Muskogee, Chippewa-Cree, Haudenosaunee and Lakota Nations met on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana, and issued the Resolution of the 5th Annual Meeting of the Traditional Elders Circle, resolving that: These [non-Native] individuals are gathering non-Indian people as followers who believe they are receiving instructions of the original people. We, the Elders and our representatives sitting in Council, give warning to these non-Indian followers that it is our understanding this is not a proper process, that the authority to carry these sacred objects is given by the people...

Belém, July 1988 The first international congress of the International Society of Ethnobiology involving scientists, environmentalists and Indigenous peoples met at Belém, Brazil. They identified themselves collectively as ethnobiologists, and announced that (amongst other matters) since "Indigenous cultures around the world are being disrupted and destroyed". The Declaration of Belém declared: Mechanisms [ought to] be established by which Indigenous specialists are recognized as proper Authorities and are consulted in all programs affecting them, their resources and their environment...Procedures must be developed to compensate native peoples for the utilization of their knowledge and their biological resources.

Kari-Oca Declaration, May 1992

The Kari-Oca Declaration and Indigenous Peoples Earth Charter was first affirmed in Brazil in May 1992, and then re-affirmed in Indonesia in June 2002. Ratifying the document were Indigenous peoples from the Americas, Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe and the Pacific who, at Kari-Oca Villages, united in one voice to collectively express their serious concern at the way the world was exploiting the natural resources upon which Indigenous peoples depend.

Specific reference is made within the Indigenous Peoples Earth Charter to perceived abuses of Indigenous people's intellectual and cultural properties.Fourmile, Henrietta (1996) "Making things work: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Involvement in Bioregional Planning" in Approaches to bioregional planning. Part 2. Background Papers to the conference; 30 October – 1 November 1995, Melbourne; Department of the Environment, Sport and Territories. Canberra. p.235 Under the heading, "Culture, Science and Intellectual Property", among other matters, it is asserted:Fourmile pages 260–261

99: The usurping of traditional medicines and knowledge from Indigenous peoples should be considered a crime against peoples... 102: As creators and carriers of civilizations which have given and continue to share knowledge, experience, and values with humanity, we require that our right to intellectual and cultural properties be guaranteed and that mechanisms for each be in favour of our peoples... 104: The protection, norms and mechanism of artistic and artisan creation of our peoples must be established and implemented in order to avoid plunder, plagiarism, undue exposure, and use...

Lakota declaration, June 1993 At the Lakota Summit V, an international gathering of US and Canadian Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Nations, about 500 representatives from 40 different tribes and bands of the Lakota unanimously passed a "Declaration of War Against Exploiters of Lakota Spirituality". Representatives affirmed a zero-tolerance policy on the exploitation of Lakota, Dakota and Nakota ceremonial knowledge: Whereas we are conveners of an ongoing series of comprehensive forums on the abuse and exploitation of Lakota spirituality;... 6. We urge traditional people, tribal leaders, and governing councils of all other Indian Nations, as well as all national Indian organizations, to join us in calling for an immediate end to this rampant exploitation of our respective American Indian sacred traditions by issuing statements denouncing such abuse; for it is not the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota people alone whose spiritual practices are being systematically violated by non-Indians.

Mātaatua Declaration, June 1993