Indigenous intellectual property

Indigenous Intellectual Property (or I.P.) is a way of protecting the knowledge, cultures, and wisdom of certain ‘indigenous’ (meaning original and native) people and communities. This means that no one else can copy, use, or profit from the intellectual property of certain Indigenous people, like their stories, songs, art, and designs. The idea behind it is that, just like other people are protected in the way that they earn money and profit from the ideas they have (like inventing a product), so too should Indigenous people be given the same protection. This makes sure that Indigenous people can still benefit from their cultures, traditions and knowledge without it being exploited by anyone else.