Two early examples of national sui generis laws grew out of countries' efforts to protect the traditional knowledge of indigenous groups concerning the medicinal value of plants. Ecuador’s Law on Intellectual Property of 1998 protects the country’s biological and genetic heritage and conditions the grant of product or process patents relating to that heritage on the acquisition of rights from the relevant traditional owners. Similarly, in 1997, the Philippine Congress passed the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act “to recognize and promote all the rights of Indigenous Cultural Communities/Indigenous Peoples (ICCs/IPs), including their rights to “preserve and develop their cultures, traditions, and institutions” in cultural property. The Act affirms the right of ICCs/IPs to the full ownership and control of their cultural and intellectual rights. Thus, access to biological and genetic resources is permitted only after obtaining the free and informed consent of such communities. In addition, the Act guarantees ICCs/IPs the right to practice and revitalize their cultural traditions, including “to practice and teach their spiritual and religious traditions, customs and ceremonies; the right to maintain, protect and have access to their religious and cultural sites; the right to the use and control of ceremonial objects; and, the right to the repatriation of human remains.”
Panama's Act No. 20 launched the sui generis protection movement specifically for TCEs in June, 2000. The Act subjects “the rights of use and commercialization of the arts, crafts and other cultural expressions based on the tradition of the indigenous community” to the regulation of each indigenous community approved and registered in the DIGERPI or in the National Copyright Office of the Ministry of Education. It defines “indigenous collective rights” as “indigenous intellectual and cultural property rights law relating to art, music, literature...and other subject matter and manifestations that have no known author or owner and no date of origin and constitute the heritage of an entire indigenous people.”
Likewise, Peru's 2002 sui generis TK Law aims to promote respect for and protect the "collective knowledge of indigenous peoples; to promote the fair and equitable distribution of the benefits derived from the use of that collective knowledge; to promote the use of the knowledge for the benefit of the indigenous peoples and mankind in general; to ensure that the use of the knowledge takes place with the prior informed consent of the indigenous peoples; to promote the strengthening and development of the potential of the indigenous peoples...and to avoid situations where the patents are granted for inventions made or developed on the basis of collective knowledge of the indigenous peoples of Peru without any account being taken of that knowledge as prior art in the examination of the novelty and inventiveness of the said inventions."
In 2003, Guatemala designed and implemented a special sui generis set of intellectual property rights for indigenous folklore, backed by both civil and criminal penalties. Guatemala's "Cultural Heritage Protection Law" also enables the attorney general to protect any registered indigenous cultural good (including oral or musical traditions) and provides perpetual intellectual property protection for any registered item. The Guatemalan system is reciprocal; it recognizes the registered folklore of any other country that recognizes the Guatemalan registry.