The Geographies of Race, Patents and Traditional Knowledge

An examination of how patent law provides a legitimizing legal facade for the appropriation of traditional knowledge of plants and biocultural resources, what Indigenous groups and their allies name "biopiracy" and "biocolonialism." It traces the patent regime from its origins to its hegemonic present and asks how resistance can avoid Reva Siegel's "preservation through transformation," where reform changes the narrative while leaving elite power intact.