This article examines how Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH) can be safeguarded through Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). The depth of the oceans, seas and other waterbodies hold a lot of invaluable assets such as submerged cities, shipwrecks, archaeological remains, monuments, and others forming an interesting intersection of legal, technological, and ethical concerns. With the advent of technological advancement, new challenges have emerged with respect to protecting the IP associated with underwater discoveries, including the scientific data, and their commercial exploitation. Due to the digital evolution and tools like AI, 3D modelling, robotics, photogrammetry, has enabled to locate, map and recreate the underwater articles and sites. While on one hand this helps to access and preserve the UCH, on the other hand, these developments have created a cause of concern as to the ownership, reproduction and commercial exploitation of these valuable assets. There are various reasons as to why UCH has to be protected. They include; preventing illegal looting, misappropriation or unlawful commercialisation of the underwater artefacts, treasures, etc; protecting the data gathered by way of 3D models, sonar mapping, geospatial coordinates, virtual reconstructions, etc; protecting the interest of indigenous communities; to ensure proper scientific integrity of data collected; and to tackle complex ownership claims over the UCH and associated IP. Although UNESCO has established international norms and conventions to protect, promote and preserve the UCH, the challenges arising out of rapid technological developments are not addressed and the norms need to be altered and adapted to fill the gaps and to meet current needs.
IPR though significant, is an underrated tool to protect UCH. For instance, the images, photographs and videos generated during the underwater exploring can be protected under the Copyright Laws. Although the artefacts and articles connected to UCH may belong to the public domain, their digital recreations may qualify as creative works, and thereby arising the issues of authorship and ownership. Trademarks and branding can also be an important aspect when it comes to tourism and commercialisation, where UCH may be associated with specific brands, logos, names or symbols, making them vulnerable to the risk of infringement and misuse. The process of data collection and the methodology involve intensive R&D, potentially making them eligible for Patent protection. Design protection can be sought over the artefacts which are recreated, displayed for non-commercial purposes. Finally, all the sensitive data or information such as unpublished data and search finding can be safe guarded as confidential matters. However, enforcement and implementation of these IP can be challenging as the UCH lies in the international waters, where there is limitation of the jurisdiction, thereby enforcement of national laws becomes difficult. A balanced framework is therefore required for both protection, accessibility and preservation of the UCH.
As far as India is concerned, we are yet to be party to the UNESCO Convention on Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage. Given the rich and extensive coastline and maritime history, India has to take proactive steps to protect its underwater assets. This will help to address upcoming contemporary issues of digital reproduction, database and content created and generated through underwater exploration. Strict regulatory mechanisms and boosting public-private partnerships may encourage both exploration and preservation. To conclude, although IP does not protect the UCH in its original form, they play a crucial role in regulating how UCH is accessed, documented and commercialised. Hence, legislative reformation and strengthening international engagement is required to ensure effective IP protection in the era of rapid technological advancement, thereby safeguarding the UCH for future generations.
Written by
Prakalya M
