Abstract:

Every nation claiming to be a part of the civilized world is proud of its cultural heritage. Folklore is probably the most important and well-acclaimed component of the cultural heritage of a nation. It can reflect the essentials of a nation’s cultural attributes as in a mirror and is recognized as a basis for its cultural and social identity. Nations all over the world are quite possessive about this valuable heritage and express very strong sentiments about the management of the rich resource.The objectives of the study were to examine how effective protection of folklore is being achieved in these countries so as to derive directions for future work in this field and also to assess the relevance of the Model Provisions already drawn up for framing legislation, in these countries.The scope of the research extended to protection offered through laws on copyright and related rights, other laws on intellectual property (IP), and non-IP laws like the laws relating to biodiversity issues and rights of indigenous people.