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Abstract
South Africa is contemplating new laws to protect the country's traditional knowledge. Other countries on the continent may follow. Companies should welcome these moves. For practitioners who deal daily with defined terms and contractual rights and responsibilities, traditional knowledge raises fears of a concept that deals with something far less quantifiable. Debates about how it should be safeguarded pit commercial lawyers against campaigners who many practitioners accuse of having little understanding about how IP laws work and who want to muddy the legal waters by introducing stand-alone, sui generis systems of protection. Some of the countries involved have been putting their pledges into practice. Over the past three years, for example, Ethiopia has been busy securing trade mark registrations for the names of three of its high-quality coffees in more than 30 countries and securing licensing deals with some of the world's biggest retailers and coffee shop chains. The aim of the project is to change Ethiopia's negotiating terms in the international coffee markets by turning what was previously primarily regarded as a commodity item into a value-added brand name product.