Challenges of the protection of traditional knowledge through intellectual property in Ecuador

This article focuses on the legal protection of traditional knowledge through the intellectual property system according to Ecuadorian law. Its objective is to assess the main challenges of the legal protection of traditional knowledge in Ecuador, based on the Organic Code of the Social Economy of Knowledge, Creativity and Innovation, promulgated in 2016. In this legislation, in addition to establishing norms Typical of the classic intellectual property system, the protection of the collective rights of communities over their traditional knowledge was incorporated, based on a sui generis system, with certain similarities to the proposal for an International Treaty by the World Intellectual Property Organization.. Regarding the methodology, it starts from a theoretical legal investigation, with a qualitative approach, combining the methods of analysissynthesis and historical-logical, with others, such as the exegetical, using documentary review. As results, it was recognized that the protection of traditional knowledge by intellectual property in Ecuador, goes through various challenges associated with the interrelation between the different carrier communities, development of awareness, promotion and socialization of collective rights over this knowledge, its identification and due criminal legal regulation of its illegal appropriation by third parties.