Wakanda is an African autarky hidden from the rest of the world that generally avoids partaking in international contact. As such, many of our American and European intellectual property laws cannot apply to Wakanda’s inventions. Most of Shuri’s inventions can essentially be considered a trade secret of sorts, as she tends to work alone, but many of the technologies she creates are eventually shared with the rest of Wakanda due to their heavy emphasis on community (i.e. living by the social contract theory). The audience is never given the minutiae of intellectual property or property protections in Wakanda, but it is heavily implied that everyone has access to everything they need, and trade secrets exist as a concept out of respect for researchers.

    From a Kantian point of view, intellectual property should be shared as long as it is asked for. Kantianism includes the belief that lying by omission, as long as it is done to manipulate someone into believing something false, is unethical. As such, all trade secrets are unethical by Kantianism. Therefore, Wakandans who have misinformed the rest of the world about vibranium and the wealth of Wakanda would be in the wrong according to Immanuel Kant. Of course, this is not the theory under which the real world operates.

    From a more consequentialist theory such as act utilitarianism, perhaps the Wakandans were not wrong to hide their wealth. Their isolationism and preservation of the coveted vibranium allowed their entire country to enrich its culture, technology, and happiness for centuries without interference. In addition, at the end of Black Panther, T’Challa chooses to begin opening trade of goods and technologies with the rest of the world in order to allow vibranium and Wakandan technology to continue benefiting more people. Overall, the combination of Wakanda’s historical isolation and T’Challa’s decision to open trade are implied to lead toward benefits for the whole world. In short, their actions have been ethical under act utilitarianism.

   This opening of trade, however, introduces new questions. How will Wakanda and Shuri’s inventions be protected? Since some technologies and discoveries they have made exist in similar forms in today’s world, such as maglev, how will the international laws regarding multiple discovery change? Perhaps we will never know, unless Marvel decides to delve further into the intricacies of intellectual property protections in their cinematic universe.