Intellectual property as a blind spot in the UNESCO Convention for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage

In this article we explore the use of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) in the implementation of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. In retracing the ambiguous role accorded to IPRs since the drafting of the Convention and considering the practice of the Organs of the Convention, we highlight discrepancies in the decisions and debates of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage vis-à-vis IPRs. Drawing on our own anthropological and legal perspectives, we shed light on the fragmentation of different disciplinary standpoints and specialist knowledge in the practice of the Organs of the Convention, revealing how observed inconsistencies in the role of IPRs are neither acknowledged nor addressed. This makes the issue of IPRs a blind spot. Yet, ‘working misunderstandings’ facilitate rather than hinder successful interaction among the many players within the Convention, allowing different, and sometimes contradictory, stances to imperfectly coexist.