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entitled to prevent third parties from disclosing or acquiring without its consent
undisclosed traditional knowledge, in a manner contrary to honest business
practices, provided that the local community to which the undisclosed registered
traditional knowledge belongs has taken reasonable steps to keep it secret.
Article 265: The rights conferred on local communities under this Law shall be industrial
property rights which are peculiar to these communities.
These rights may not be assigned, confiscated or transferred in any way.
Article 266: Any proceedings concerning the protection and application of rights in
traditional knowledge must be instituted by the local communities in their own
name, in accordance with the measures relating to representation and legal
capacity that are established in civil law, in this Law and in the customary
practices of the communities.
Article 267: The State shall have the right to assist local communities, without replacing their
representative bodies, in defending their rights and legitimate interests, at all
levels of the public administration and the judiciary, at the national, regional and
international level. Such assistance may consist in particular in taking the
initiative to draw up inventories of traditional knowledge with a view to its
registration; encouraging local communities to form associations in order to
obtain legal capacity; and of instituting, on its own initiative, procedures for
registering traditional knowledge when emergency situations so warrant.
Article 268: Protection of registered traditional knowledge shall only expire when such
knowledge has lost its values, i.e.
- because it is no longer used as a cultural identifier;
- because it has been deliberately and expressly abandoned;
- because of persistent failure to use or continued abuse by third parties of
which the local community to which the knowledge belongs is aware.
Section 4. Practices and acts excluded from protection
Article 269: The following shall be excluded from the protection conferred by this Law:
- traditional practices of commercial or industrial exploitation of traditional
knowledge which forms part of the traditions and culture of the local
communities;
- Non-traditional practices of commercial or industrial exploitation of
traditional knowledge prior to the date of the application for registration;
- Commercial acts that have already been performed.
Article 270: If the general interest of a significant share of the population of Burundi so
warrants, the Minister responsible for trade, after hearing the local community to