Dressed in smart white checked shirt and grey sweater, you'd hardly know Isaac ole Tialolo is Maasai.
The large round holes in his ears - where his jewellery sometimes sits - might be a clue, though.
Isaac is a Maasai leader and elder. Back home in the mountains near Naivasha, in southern Kenya, he lives a semi-nomadic life, herding sheep, goats, and - most importantly - cattle.
But Isaac is also chair of a new organisation, the Maasai Intellectual Property Initiative, and it's a project that's beginning to take him around the world - including, most recently, London.
"We have been exploited by so many things you cannot imagine."
Crunch time for Isaac came about 20 years ago, when a tourist took a photo of him, without asking permission - something the Maasai, are particularly sensitive about.
"We believed that if somebody takes your photograph, he has already taken your blood," he explains.
Isaac was so furious that he smashed the tourist's camera.
Twenty years later, he is mild-mannered and impeccably turned out - but equally passionate about what he sees as the use, and abuse, of his culture.
"I think people need to understand the culture of the others and respect it," he says.
"You should not use it to your own benefit, leaving the community - or the owner of the culture - without anything."
"If you just take what belongs to somebody, and go and display it and have your fortune, then it is very wrong. It is very wrong," he says.
According to Light Years IP - an NGO which specialises in securing intellectual property rights in developing countries - about 80 companies around the world are currently using either the Maasai image or name.
These include a range of accessories called Masai made for Land Rover; Masai Barefoot Technology, which makes speciality trainers; and high-end fashion house Louis Vuitton which has a Masai line, including beach towels, hats, scarves and duffle bags.
"It ranks right up there. It's a serious brand.
"Those companies may be using the Maasai brand in ways that really do enhance their business, so it's reasonable for the Maasai to say, 'Well, why aren't you coming to talk to us? Why aren't you asking our permission? Why don't you engage with us?'" says Layton.
But the reality is there has never been a single, unified Maasai body for companies to approach to seek permission - though that could soon change.
The argument is that intellectual property rules offer the potential to provide a valuable source of income for people in developing countries, who tend to get only a small sliver of the profits made on their goods on the international market.
If the Maasai "brand" were owned by a corporation, it would be worth more than $10m (£6.6m) a year - perhaps even "tens of millions", according to Layton. How much of this the Maasai might be able to claim would be up to negotiation.
"It's time the world sat up and took notice," says Lord Boateng, a member of the UK's House of Lords, whose grandfather was a cocoa farmer in Ghana. "It's an idea whose time has come."
Boateng is on the board of directors of the newly-created African IP Trust, which has taken on the Maasai as one of its first cases.
"They are not getting value. Their image is being abused," says Boateng.
"The Maasai are an ancient and sophisticated people - they know they are being ripped off and they want this to stop."
It is not yet certain that the Maasai will choose to pursue intellectual property protection - Maasai elders like Isaac ole Tialolo want to be sure that the whole community is on board first.
Together with Light Years IP, he has been travelling around Maasai areas holding meetings and workshops.
It's a huge task - according to some estimates, there could be as many as three million Maasai, in 12 districts, spread across a vast swathe of Kenya and Tanzania.
So far, they have reached about 1.2 million people.
Once the consultation is complete - and if the Maasai choose to go forward - the plan is to create a General Assembly of Maasai elders, trained in IP, who would act as a legal body specifically on this issue, negotiating with companies via a licensing agent, on a case-by-case basis.
That's the dream at least. But according to some lawyers the Maasai case is not especially strong in terms of international property law.
"They are on a sticky wicket with the law," says Ben Goodger, an expert on international IP law and a partner at the law firm Edwards Wildman Palmer.
IP law, he says, has been designed for new businesses and people creating innovations - and it's not really well-suited to this kind of case.
Patents, for example, would offer little or no protection to the Maasai, because the product or service has to be new.
"It looks to me like they have got some quite powerful opponents," says Goodger. "Those guys may not just give that up easily."
The idea of cultures seeking IP protection is not an entirely new one - the Native American Navajo recently brought a case against the clothes company Urban Outfitters, for use of their name.
But perhaps the best parallel with the Maasai is the case of Aborigines in Australia who, 15 years ago, secured a voluntary code that governs use of their cultural and intellectual property.
Voluntary codes can be just as powerful as legal routes, argues Ron Layton.
"That's very clever. That's exactly what they should do," says Bruce Webster, an independent international branding expert.
"Then it's a proud, ancient people against exploitative Western multinationals - and they'll win the PR battle absolutely."
For the moment, the Maasai are not going after any companies - though they have written to a number, in cases where they have found the use of their name or image to be particularly offensive.
They are sensitive about the portrayal of their bodies, for example, and they don't like images of their jewellery used inappropriately.
Each colour of bead has a special meaning.
"This, we call it norkiteng," says Isaac, holding up a circular necklace with threaded beads hanging down from points of the circle.
It is given as a gift to a new bride. Used in some commercial contexts it can seem disrespectful.
"It offends me because they don't know the meaning - they misuse it," says Isaac.
If the Maasai do take control of their brand, large sums of money could suddenly start flowing into the community.
"The Maasai have been already been branded like there's no tomorrow, but they haven't seen the benefits," says Duncan Green, senior strategic adviser for Oxfam GB. He supports the IP campaign in principle, but warns there could be problems, without a system in place to ensure the money is used fairly.
But for Isaac at least, it is not primarily about the money. "What matters is the respect," he says.
He has hosted a series of live phone-ins in the indigenous Maa language - and the phones have been buzzing.
To Western ears, it might sound counter-intuitive for the Maasai to be hotly debating notions such as intellectual property, copyright and trademarks - such emblems of modern capitalism.
But, says Isaac, though these may not be terms they are familiar with, the Maasai have a strong sense of ownership of their culture - and a visceral sense of violation where they feel their image has been misused.
"People are very excited, very excited. They are asking every day, 'When is it going to happen? When is it going to happen?' It's something that is spreading like fire all over the community."

Liberty Reserve digital money service forced offline

Authorities in the Central American country said Arthur Budovsky had been taken into custody in Spain on suspicion of money laundering, following an investigation which also involved the US.
They added that police had raided several of Mr Budovsky's properties and seized his computer servers.
The site went offline on Thursday.
Liberty Reserve had described itself as being the internet's "oldest, safest and most popular payment processor... serving millions all around a world".
It had allowed users to open accounts and transfer money, only requiring them to provide a name, date of birth and an email address.
Cash could be put into the service using a credit card, bank wire, postal money order or other money transfer service. It was then "converted" into one of the firm's own currencies - mirroring either the Euro or US dollar - at which point it could be transferred to another account holder who could then extract the funds.
The service promised that payment transfers were "instantaneous" and it charged a maximum of $2.99 (£1.98) for each transaction. It also offered a private messaging facility which it said was "much more private and secure than email or instant messenger services".
Security expert Bryan Krebs said Liberty Reserve's features had made it a popular among cybercriminals who wanted to move funds and make payments anonymously.
However, others said they had used the service for legitimate means, viewing it as a cheaper alternative to PayPal. They fear they will now lose money still sitting in its accounts.
Refused licence Costa Rica state prosecutor Jose Pablo Gonzalez announced news of the raids on Saturday. He said that in addition to Mr Budovsky's arrest, 10 other suspects were being investigated in connection with international money laundering.
Mr Gonzalez said that Costa Rica's financial regulator, Sugef, had refused to issue a licence to Liberty Reserve in 2011 after raising concerns about how it was being funded.
Although the company Liberty Reserve subsequently closed and dismissed its employees, the prosecutor said Mr Budovsky had continued operating his money exchange service by running it through five other Costa Rican businesses.
The same year, he said, New York based officials asked Costa Rica to investigate.
Mr Gonzalez said offices and houses linked to Mr Budovsky had been raided last week, and that documents and three vehicles - including a Rolls Royce - were seized.
The US Department of Justice's website says that in 2006 Mr Budovsky was found guilty of operating a separate illegal money transmittal business - GoldAge - from a Brooklyn apartment when he used to live in New York.
However, when asked about the latest arrest, a spokeswoman said she could "not provide any guidance" at this time.
The BBC has also asked the Spanish police for more details.
Lost money According to Mr Krebs' security blog, the closure of Liberty Reserve has the potential to "cause a major upheaval in the cybercrime economy".
He said there had been "anxious discussions" about the news on several internet forums after fraudsters and malware sellers found themselves unable to access their accounts.
But others say they used the service for legitimate reasons, and are concerned about the lack of information.
They include Mitver Holdings, the firm behind a facility called ePay Cards. This allows consumers outside the US to buy goods from stores in the country as if they owned a locally-issued Visa or Mastercard credit card.
The company - which has offices in London and Texas - used Liberty Reserve as a way for its customers to charge up their "virtual credit cards".
Co-founder Mitchell Rossetti said he had about $28,000 sitting in his business's Liberty Reserve account at the time the site went offline.
"We used Liberty Reserve because it was quick, efficient and secure," he told the BBC.
"Now, we - and thousands of others who were dependent on it - have been left with nothing to look at except a blank webpage, and nothing more to go on than reports from the Costa Rican press.
"We need to know if our assets have been seized and what would be the requirements to get the funds returned."

Phil Hughes tops Derek Jeter in Starbucks wars

Kaka probably will not move to Milan, so at least thinks internationally known agent, Ernesto Bronzetti.
FIFA agent who has been very influential in bringing players in Spain and Italy, especially to Real Madrid, Kaka has said he will stay, because Milan is failing to reach agreement.

"Adriano Galliani was right when he said fans should not lie. In Italy it is impossible to pay 10 million salary. When Real Madrid plans to waive it, then Milan is unlikely, but unfortunately Kaka is now the prisoner of his salary, "said Bronzetti.

Bronzetti accurately predicted crossings Ronaldo and Kaka to Real Madrid a few months before they were officially