Extending Unfair Competition Protection to Traditional Cultural Expressions

Unfair Competition (UC) , an Intellectual Property Right (IPR) according to Art. 1(2) of Paris Convention, seems to be one of the mysterious aspects of IP law; because unlike other IPRs that deal with a definite subject matter, addresses market behavior and instead of rules and principles with predictable results, uses ethical concept named “Fair Behavior” that just like other ethical concepts is ambiguous and makes prediction of results much difficult. However this characteristic has produced a popular function for UC i.e. protecting new subjects deserving protection such as Traditional Cultural Expressions (TCEs). In this study author after briefly introducing Art.10 bis of Paris Convention, examines how UC protection will extend to TCEs and also what is advantages and disadvantages of this extension. At the end author suggest trivial UC expansion for more effective protection of TCEs.