Dear All, Some of you may remember the *ALAC statement on Community Priority Evaluation Guidelines* that was unanimously passed. There are certain developments within on moves to protect Traditional Cultural Expressions through WIPO etc. To see the developments in WIPO and the Draft Articles in this area, in English, Spanish, French and Russian, visit: http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/doc_details.jsp?doc_id=245543 As you can imagine, the At Large community has many people who have an interest in this space either from community based concerns in the protection of such expressions etc. A little known fact is that Vanda Scartazeni used to head and manage Brazil's equivalent of the United States Trademark and Patent Office (USPTO). There are others in the At Large community who have been involved in various Intellectual Property linked matters such as Hong and Seth etc. Instead of always being reactionary to public policy debates and dialogue, it is critical that issues such as Traditional Cultural Expressions and protections in the wake of lack of appropriate mechanisms be protected as captured within the spirit of the Statement of the ALAC. Strategies should be deployed within At Large on how to best protect them. Care should be taken to protect "traditional knowledge" and "indigenous communities" that may not have the technological savvy to navigate the systems effectively. For example, should Louis Vuitton decide to apply for .maasai and where a Maasai Elder is in the process of protecting their traditional name. Ron Layton of Light Years IP argues that the Maasai brand is worth $10million. See: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22617001 Intellectual Property and Traditional cultural expressions have been the subject of global discussions as early as 1967 when there was an amendment to the *Berne Convention for the Protection of Artistic and Literary Works*for the protection of unpublished and anonymous works. Best Regards, Sala