by Curlan CampbellÂ
- Trademarks Act and Patents Act to be updated
- Revising draft legislation for industrial designs and geographical indications supported by CarIPI
- OECS/WIPO MoU covers cooperative services offered at CAIPO
The Ministry of Legal Affairs is to update Grenada’s Trademarks Act No. 1 of 2012 and the Patents Act No. 16 of 2011 to ensure that local innovators have an added level of protection for their intellectual property.
This move is in line with regional efforts to strengthen the legal and regulatory framework of the OECS through the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in 2021.Â
According to the OECS, the revised agreement represents a new chapter in an ongoing collaboration between the 2 entities to ensure that the intellectual property rights of citizens are protected.
Claudette Joseph, Minister for Legal Affairs, Labour and Consumer Affairs, was particularly pleased with the Government’s latest move towards harnessing the creative industry’s economic potential, outlined as a new engine of growth and wealth creation for developing countries.Â
Minister Joseph was addressing attendees at Wednesday’s 8th Annual Carol Bristol Distinguished Lecture Series held by The University of the West Indies (The UWI), which was preceded by the launch of UNLEASH, Grenada’s Premier Cultural and Creative Industries Conference held at the Radisson Grenada Beach Resort.
She indicated that work has also started in revising draft legislation for industrial designs and geographical indications with support from the Cariforum Intellectual Property and Innovation Project (CarIPI). “In order to align the legislative agenda with innovation and provide legal certainty for local businesses, the Ministry of Legal Affairs intends to conduct consultations on the Hague system of international registration of industrial designs,” Minister Joseph said. “This service provides practical business solutions by allowing applicants to register up to 100 designs in 96 countries by filing one single application in addition to these initiatives.”
According to the Minister, the MoU between OECS and WIPO covers cooperative services for the improvement of the intellectual property business, businesses services offered at the Corporate Affairs & Intellectual Property Office (CAIPO), including the provision of business systems by WIPO for IP rights administration, document management, online services, data search, and any related systems or modules, projects for digitisation, data capture and data quality improvement, and creation of national and or regional IT databases.
“A noteworthy aspect of this cooperation agreement is that provisions are made for capacity building and sustainability, including training and knowledge transfer. WIPO will transfer all necessary knowledge to the office staff to enable them to perform the local support system,” she added.
In March 2023, Government launched a programme to ensure that registered creative practitioners and organisations are granted 100% concessions on Common External Tariff (CET) and Value Added Tax (VAT) for items considered “tools of trade”. A Creative Industries Development Fund was also established, providing “much-needed resources” to local creatives and businesses that export products and services.