CARIBBEAN: Moving With the Times on Property Rights

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Wesley Gibbings

PORT OF SPAIN, Nov 29 1996 (IPS) - The twin-island republic of Trinidad and Tobago like its other Caribbean neighbours, is moving ahead to put in place legislation to deal with the contentious issue of property rights.

This move comes even as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has placed the onus on nations to adhere to minimum standards contained in the main treaties in the field of industrial property and the highest standards that have been introduced by the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.

In large measure, though, the eagerness of regional governments to reform their legislative infrastructures to meet the new demands, originates from an expectation that the road to a new relationship with especially their North American neighbours will become that much easier.

As a consequence, aspiring nations in the region have placed the highest priority on establishing a legislative framework for the protection of intellectual and industrial property rights.

The first major steps in the southern Caribbean country of Trinidad and Tobago, for instance, have been in the area of industrial property rights — patents, trademarks and industrial designs. State legal sources say a dramatic overhaul of the country’s intellectual property rights is also coming.

The Basdeo Panday administration has already passed five new pieces of legislation specific to industrial property rights. Mazina Kadir, Registrar at the Intellectual Property Registry in Port of Spain says the government is promoting a four-pronged approach.

She identifies legislative reform, improvements in existing information systems, the training of staff and improvements in the practices and procedures in the Registry. “It is not as if nothing was being done before now, but the work that was done was not enough to bring us in line with internationally accepted standards,” she says.

As a result, in 1994, an agreement was entered into between Trinidad and Tobago and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) to initiate a specific modernisation process.

WIPO director, James Quashie-Idun, has been involved in some of the work. “The legislation in Trinidad and Tobago is designed to encourage creativity, to create a climate favourable for attracting foreign investors because foreign investors wish to know that their investment would be secure,” he says.

Richard Wilder, a legal advisor to the United States government on intellectual property matters, visited Trinidad recently. He told IPS then that he was aware of the view that the preservation of intellectual property rights was largely a one-way process favouring the more industrialised countries such as the United States.

“The government of the United States does have an interest in protecting intellectual property rights in other countries because we have creative people in our country who would like to see a benefit from what they’ve created, but there are also creative people in countries such as Trinidad and Tobago who would also like to be able to realise a benefit from what they’ve created not only in Trinidad and Tobago but in other countries as well.”

“The situation is where we see a rising tide that’s lifting all ships, not just in the United States but also in countries such as in Trinidad and Tobago, throughout the Caribbean, throughout the Americas and, indeed, throughout the world,” he says.

“It is true that in every country there are creative people … and they all would like to see a benefit from what they’ve created.”

Quashie-Idun agrees with Wilder that creative people have been benefiting and will continue to do so from the new approach. “There is no doubt that the protection that is available is an incentive to creative activity,” he says.

“In this area, one should signal the importance of industrial designs which is an area which many countries would need to look at very carefully because of the potential of developing export markets based on the exotic interest in designs that can emanate if there is the right incentive for creativity.”

He says it is also important to look at patents as a source of technological information. In the recently-passed patents law in Trinidad and Tobago there is provision for the registration office to provide patent information services to the public.

The new pieces of legislation, the first of their kind within the 14-nation Caribbean Community (Caricom) grouping was described by Quashie-Idun as “a very modern set of laws enacted to ensure that Trinidad and Tobago complies with its international obligations.”

Wilder however sees the legislative process as being evolutionary. “One can reasonably anticipate that technology will continue to develop. Even now it is difficult to look into the future and say what kind of computers we are going to have, how people are going to interact in exchanging information whether it’s going to be of an industrial nature or an entertainment nature … we can however anticipate that things will change.”

“When that happens, then intellectual property will have to change to accommodate that new reality either by interpretation of existing laws or expansion of existing principles or establishing whole new areas of protection,” says Wilder.