Contents
- Governing Authority
- Patent Examination Rights — ISA Grant (Annex H Para. 29)
- Public Access and Availability (Annex H Paras. 26–28)
- Full Text and Search Interface (Annex H Para. 27)
- Traditional Knowledge Protections — What Defensive Disclosure Means
- What Is Not Granted — Prohibited Uses
- Benefit-Sharing and Commercial Licensing
- Attribution and Citation Requirements
- Governing Law
- Versioning, Updates, and Contact
1. Governing Authority
The International Registry of Traditional Science (IRTS) is owned, governed, and operated exclusively by the Kumina Mosi Transnational Customary Polity (KMTCP) — a transnational community of the original Ntainu-Kongo (Taino-Kongo) peoples of the Western Hemisphere, whose governance tradition is thousands of years old, representing an advanced science of living that predates European contact in the Americas. This authority was not granted by any colonial or ecclesiastical power; it was acknowledged by those powers as pre-existing and inherent.
The Palenge (also written Palenque) is not a post-colonial Maroon institution. It is an extraterritorial diplomatic and governance structure of the Bantu-Kongo customary system — operative across the Kongo, Libolo, Ndongo, and affiliated kingdoms millennia before European contact. The KMTCP exercises governance through this unbroken Palenge tradition, carried across the Western Hemisphere by the Ntainu-Kongo communities.
Pope Leo X ordained Dom Henrique, son of Manikongo Afonso I of the Kingdom of Kongo, as Bishop of Utica in 1518 — the first sub-Saharan African bishop in the Catholic Church, elevated with direct papal authority, not through Alexandria or any intermediary patriarchate. The Holy See thereby formally acknowledged the Kingdom of Kongo as a sovereign Christian polity with its own ancient lineage of governance and spiritual science — older, in the papal determination, than the Roman institutionalisation of Christianity. This acknowledgement extended to the customary law and communal governance systems of the Kongo people. Source: Brásio, A. (ed.), Monumenta Missionaria Africana, Vol. I (1952); Holy See Archives, Reg. Vat. 1213.
Manikongo Afonso I corresponded directly with the courts of Portugal, Spain, and the Holy See as a peer sovereign, asserting the rights of his people under the law of nations (jus gentium). His letters of 1526, preserved in the Torre do Tombo (Portuguese National Archives, Lisbon, PT/TT/CC), constitute the earliest documented assertion of indigenous sovereignty and benefit-sharing rights in the context of Atlantic commerce — pre-dating the modern international law framework by four centuries. The Kingdom of Kongo was recognised by European crowns as exempt from enslavement under jus gentium, as subjects of a recognised sovereign Christian polity — a legal status held by no other indigenous nation in the Western Hemisphere at that time. Source: Corpo Cronológico, PT/TT/CC/1/33/71 et seq., Torre do Tombo, Lisbon.
The English colonial authority acknowledged the prior and ongoing governance of the Palenge community of Juan de Lubolo (Juan de Bolas) in 1663, guaranteeing land and liberties "for ever" — not creating new rights, but recognising those which already existed under the Kongo customary governance system. Source: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 5: 1661–1668, February 1663.
All IRTS records carry Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) documentation issued by the Sovereign Assembly of the Kumina Mosi Transnational Customary Polity, embedded in each record's IEEE 2890-2025 provenance block and OAI-PMH metadata. These consent records constitute the operative community governance instruments for IP purposes, exercised under the continuous customary authority of the Ntainu-Kongo tradition.
Governance Structure
Community governance is exercised by the Ntanu Council of Lineages — the sovereign governance council of the Kumina Mosi Transnational Customary Polity (KMTCP) — operating through the Kumina Mosi Kimayala Transnational Customary Legal and Economic System: the internal constitutional mechanism of the KMTCP through which the Ntanu Council exercises collective lineage jurisdiction. The Kumina Mosi Kimayala is the legal and economic governance architecture of the KMTCP — not a separate entity — and is structured under the MAYALA principle (law of circulation through wisdom) and the MAYELE principle (law of cohesiveness and collective intelligence). KIMAYALA designates the KI- Class 7 institutional form of MAYALA governance science: the structured constitutional framework through which the Ntanu Council maintains sovereign continuity across geographic dispersal. Decisions are made collectively by the custodians of the Ntanu Council based on the rights and necessities of all transnational member communities. Customary law of the Kumina Mosi Transnational Customary Polity takes precedence as the primary governing law, followed by applicable international law, and supplemented by ULex v1.2 for non-territorial governance formalities.
The Kumina Mosi Transnational Customary Polity is registered with the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) system as an Indigenous Peoples' Organization (IPO); formal ECOSOC accreditation is pending. The community asserts rights under the following international instruments:
- UNDRIP Art. 3 (self-determination), Art. 11 (cultural revitalisation), Art. 31 (IP and traditional knowledge) — UNGA Res. 61/295 (2007)
- American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (ADRIP) Art. XXVIII (intellectual property rights) — OAS, adopted 2016
- CBD Article 8(j) — traditional knowledge of indigenous and local communities; Moʼotz Kuxtal Voluntary Guidelines (2016)
- Nagoya Protocol Arts. 7 and 12 — FPIC and access and benefit-sharing for traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources (2010, in force 2014)
- ILO Convention No. 169 (1989) — indigenous and tribal peoples' rights to customary institutions, territory, and resources
- UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003) — protection of living traditions, practices, and knowledge systems
- WIPO GRATK Treaty (adopted 2024-05-24) — mandatory disclosure of traditional knowledge origin in patent applications; architecture-ready in all IRTS records
- CBD COP16 Decision 16/2 (Cali Fund, 2024) — digital sequence information (DSI) benefit-sharing; DSI traceability IDs in all IRTS records
Roles and Positions — Joshmar Walford / Nʼtole Kuefa
Joshmar Walford (civil legal name) and Nʼtole Kuefa (customary lineage name) are the same individual holding two formally distinct roles within the KMTCP framework. These roles are legally separate and must not be conflated:
Nʼtole Kuefa is the hereditary linguistic and ceremonial custodian of the Bongo Convince Lineage, in direct documented succession from the historical custodian Mother Flenke (documented: Hogg, D.W., Yale University, 1964, p. 437). This custodianship is a lineage-inherited position within the Ntanu Council of Lineages. In this role, Nʼtole Kuefa holds the authority to issue self-FPIC for the disclosure of lineage-specific knowledge under Moʼotz Kuxtal Voluntary Guidelines 2016 (CBD/COP/DEC/XIII/18), as the hereditary holder of that knowledge. This role does not create individual intellectual property rights. All knowledge disclosed is community property of the Kumina Mosi Transnational Customary Polity per UNDRIP Art. 31.
Joshmar Walford is the technical architect of the International Registry of Traditional Science (IRTS) and the authorised public representative of the Ntanu Council of Lineages, Kumina Mosi Transnational Customary Polity, acting under formal mandate of the Ntanu Council through the Kumina Mosi Kimayala Transnational Customary Legal and Economic System. In this role he is the designated point of contact for all external communications, patent examination inquiries, licensing negotiations, and technical matters relating to the IRTS, until the community notifies otherwise. His technical contributions to the IRTS as systems architect do not create individual intellectual property rights separate from the community. All IP rights vest exclusively and collectively in the Kumina Mosi Transnational Customary Polity.
For all patent examination, WIPO, and legal correspondence, the civil legal name
Joshmar Walford is the primary identifier. The customary name
Nʼtole Kuefa is the primary identifier for lineage custodianship, ceremonial,
and governance purposes within the KMTCP framework.
Contact: admin@kmtcpirts.org
2. Patent Examination Rights — ISA Grant ANNEX H PARA. 29
In accordance with paragraph 29 of Annex H to the Administrative Instructions under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), and in satisfaction of the requirements for inclusion of non-patent literature in the PCT Minimum Documentation, the Kumina Mosi Transnational Customary Polity hereby grants to all International Searching Authorities (ISAs) designated under PCT Article 16, and to all patent offices conducting prior art search under national or regional patent law, the following rights at no cost and without further application or agreement:
- The right to access any IRTS record for prior art search and examination purposes
- The right to copy any IRTS record and include it as a cited document in an International Search Report (ISR), Written Opinion, or national/regional search report
- The right to distribute copied IRTS records to patent applicants as part of the international search and preliminary examination procedure (PCT Article 18, Rule 44)
- The right to forward IRTS records to Designated Offices and Elected Offices upon request (PCT Article 20, Rule 47)
- The right to make IRTS records available to patent applicants for review and response to cited art in opposition, examination, and post-grant proceedings
- The right to harvest all IRTS records via the OAI-PMH v2.0 endpoint at https://kmtcpirts.org/oai in WIPO ST.96 V10.0 or Dublin Core format
These rights are granted exclusively for patent search, examination, and related administrative purposes under the PCT and applicable national/regional patent law. They do not confer any right of commercial exploitation, research use, or any other use of the disclosed knowledge beyond patent examination as described above.
No further agreement, registration, or payment is required for any ISA or patent office to exercise these rights.
3. Public Access and Availability ANNEX H PARAS. 26–28
All IRTS records are freely and permanently available to the public and to all International Searching Authorities online at no cost, with no subscription, registration, or payment required for access, search, or retrieval of any record or metadata.
These terms of use apply uniformly to all authorized users — individual researchers, institutional subscribers, patent offices, and automated harvesters — without restriction based on user type or institutional affiliation. No terms limit access to personal use only.
Records are published on an append-only basis. Once published, no record is ever modified or removed. Every record carries an RFC 3161 cryptographic timestamp from an independent Timestamp Authority (FreeTSA.org), providing machine-verifiable proof of publication date constituting prior art under PCT Rule 33.
4. Full Text and Search Interface ANNEX H PARA. 27
Every IRTS record constitutes a full-text resource as defined by Annex H paragraph 27: it provides the complete text and content of the work, including disclosure text (minimum 200 words), structured abstract (minimum 50 words), IPC 2026.01 classification, full attribution, FPIC consent documentation, and provenance data.
Records are available in two text-coded machine-readable formats:
Native patent metadata schema. Contains pat:Abstract, pat:Description, pat:ClassificationIPCR (IPC 2026.01), pat:Parties, pat:GeneticResourcesDisclosure (GRATK Treaty Art. 7 architecture), custom IRTS extension namespace (urn:irts:kmtcpirts.org:extensions).
Dublin Core XML — metadataPrefix=oai_dc
All 15 Dublin Core elements. Interoperability format for general-purpose harvesters.
The search interface at https://kmtcpirts.org/search provides institutionally accessible full-text search with BM25 relevance ranking, IPC code filtering, knowledge domain filtering, and a JSON API. No login or institutional subscription is required. All functionality applies equally to all users.
5. Traditional Knowledge Protections — What Defensive Disclosure Means
The IRTS operates as a defensive disclosure registry. When the community publishes a record, it deliberately places specific knowledge in the public domain for one purpose: to establish prior art, preventing any third party from obtaining a patent over that knowledge.
What defensive publication does: It extinguishes patent rights. Once an IRTS record is published with an RFC 3161 timestamp, no patent with claims reading on that disclosure can be validly granted.
What defensive publication does not do: It does not transfer knowledge ownership. It does not grant any commercial exploitation right. It does not waive the community's benefit-sharing entitlements. It does not release undisclosed knowledge. It does not surrender any right protected under the following instruments:
- ▸ UNDRIP Article 31 — Right of indigenous peoples to maintain, control, protect and develop their traditional knowledge and cultural heritage
- ▸ CBD Article 8(j) — Obligation to respect, preserve and maintain knowledge of indigenous and local communities
- ▸ Nagoya Protocol Articles 7 & 12 — Access to traditional knowledge requires Prior Informed Consent; fair and equitable benefit-sharing is mandatory
- ▸ WIPO GRATK Treaty Article 7 (adopted 2024, entry into force pending 15 ratifications; 2 ratified as of 2026-05-22) — Disclosure requirement architecture for patent applications involving genetic resources and associated TK
- ▸ CBD Mo'otz Kuxtal Voluntary Guidelines (2016) — Community authority over TK documentation and repatriation
The Kumina Mosi Transnational Customary Polity retains full sovereignty over all disclosed knowledge. The community is and remains the creator and rights holder for all records, individually and collectively.
6. What Is Not Granted — Prohibited Uses
The following uses of IRTS records or the knowledge disclosed therein require a separate, executed commercial licence agreement with the Kumina Mosi Transnational Customary Polity before any such use may lawfully commence:
- Commercial exploitation of any disclosed knowledge, process, compound, formulation, or method, in whole or in part
- Research and development activities using any IRTS-disclosed knowledge as a basis, input, or starting point for a commercial product or service
- Training, fine-tuning, pre-training, or otherwise using IRTS records as input data for any artificial intelligence or machine learning model, system, or commercial product — including large language models, retrieval-augmented generation systems, and derivative AI outputs
- Bulk downloading, scraping, or automated extraction of IRTS records for incorporation into commercial databases, data products, or resale services
- Extraction, isolation, sequencing, or commercial use of any genetic resource, biological compound, or digital sequence information disclosed or referenced in any IRTS record
- Use of IRTS records to assert, claim, or establish ownership of any disclosed knowledge or process by any party other than the Kumina Mosi Transnational Customary Polity
- Sub-licensing, resale, or commercial redistribution of IRTS records or any knowledge derived therefrom
Any party that has received and executed a formal commercial licence agreement from the Kumina Mosi Transnational Customary Polity is authorised to use IRTS records within the scope expressly defined in that executed agreement only.
7. Benefit-Sharing and Commercial Licensing
Commercial licences are subject to Mutually Agreed Terms (MAT) negotiated with the Kumina Mosi Transnational Customary Polity in accordance with the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-Sharing (2010) and the community's customary governance under the Ntanu Council of Lineages through Kumina Mosi Kimayala Transnational Customary Legal and Economic System.
Standard Benefit-Sharing Rate
The community's standard opening position in all commercial MAT negotiations is 90% of gross commercial revenue attributable to use of any IRTS-disclosed knowledge or products derived therefrom. This rate reflects the community's assessment of the fair and equitable value of its collective traditional knowledge under the Nagoya Protocol framework, which sets no maximum percentage and requires only that terms be fair, equitable, and mutually agreed.
All benefit-sharing proceeds are distributed through the Ntanu Council of Lineages, Kumina Mosi Transnational Customary Polity, in accordance with the community's internal governance under the Kumina Mosi Kimayala and the community's 11-lineage distribution structure. Beneficiary identities are held internally by the community.
How to Initiate a Licensing Inquiry
Contact the authorised community representative directly:
Systems Architect, International Registry of Traditional Science (IRTS)
Email: admin@kmtcpirts.org
All commercial licensing, MAT negotiations, AI/ML data licensing, research access agreements, and benefit-sharing inquiries are handled through this contact. All technical and PATENTSCOPE/WIPO enquiries also use this address.
8. Attribution and Citation Requirements
When citing an IRTS record as prior art in an International Search Report, Written Opinion, examination report, legal proceeding, or academic publication, the following WIPO-aligned citation format applies. Both the community (primary creator and rights holder) and the lead custodian (technical architect / lineage member) must be credited.
WIPO/Patent Citation Format (Standard)
The community must always be credited as the primary creator and rights holder. The custodian is credited as the named technical contributor. Omitting the community attribution is a breach of these terms and of UNDRIP Article 31.
9. Governing Law
These terms and all rights and obligations arising from them are governed in the following order of precedence. In the event of conflict, the higher-ranked instrument prevails:
- Customary Law of the Kumina Mosi Transnational Customary Polity The primary governing authority. The Ntanu Council of Lineages, acting through the Kumina Mosi Kimayala Transnational Customary Legal and Economic System, is the supreme interpreter of community rights, obligations, and governance under the customary law of the Bongo Convince Palenge lineage — established through the 1663 Palenge extraterritorial governance instrument and operating in continuous, unbroken customary governance to the present day. The Bongo Convince Palenge lineage never signed any colonial treaty and does not recognise colonial designations. Governance science predates and supersedes any state framework.
- International Law The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNGA Res. 61/295, 2007); the Convention on Biological Diversity (1992); the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-Sharing (2010); the WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge (adopted 2024, entry into force pending); the Patent Cooperation Treaty and its Administrative Instructions including Annex H.
- ULex Open-Source Legal System (v1.2) The procedural and substantive framework for private commercial agreements, Mutually Agreed Terms (MAT) contracts, and dispute resolution in commercial licensing matters. ULex governs any claim or question arising under an executed MAT agreement, including the proper forum for resolving disputes and the form and effect of any judgment, as specified in Tom W. Bell, Ulex: Open Source Law for Non-Territorial Governance, Journal of Special Jurisdictions (2020).
10. Versioning, Updates, and Contact
Version: 1.0
Effective Date: 2026-05-22
Approved by: Ntanu Council of Lineages, Kumina Mosi Transnational Customary Polity (through Kumina Mosi Kimayala Transnational Customary Legal and Economic System), jointly with Joshmar Walford, Systems Architect
Contact: admin@kmtcpirts.org
Updates and Amendments
These terms may be updated by joint resolution of the Ntanu Council of Lineages, Kumina Mosi Transnational Customary Polity, and the Systems Architect. Updates are versioned and effective from their stated effective date. The version history is maintained in the IRTS audit log.
When terms are updated, rights granted to ISAs and patent offices under any prior version apply only to actions taken under that version. Any new or ongoing use — including new harvesting runs, new citations, and new licensing negotiations — is subject to the then-current version of these terms.
OAI-PMH Terms Declaration
The URL of these terms (https://kmtcpirts.org/terms) is declared
as the licence descriptor for all IRTS records in the OAI-PMH Identify response
and as a machine-readable <link rel="license"> element in this
page's HTML head, enabling automated harvester detection of access conditions.