WIPO and Caribbean IP, what’s the point?
By Abiola Inniss
Recent
months have seen a few interesting intellectual property symposia in the
Caribbean, in particular the WIPO –JIPO Regional Conference on IP and creative
industries which was held in Jamaica from February 10-12 2014. It is quite
interesting that in spite of the intention that it should be regional as
indicated in the title of the conference, there seems to have been little
participation from the fifteen member countries of Caricom and that most of the
sessions focused on Jamaica and its situation, perhaps a natural outcome of the
WIPO –JIPO collaboration. Progressive Caribbean
intellectuals in the area of intellectual property were also notably absent from
the forum. In both of these situations WIPO (World Intellectual Property
Organization) holds responsibility for not ensuring that the conference was
widely advertised and that leading regional intellectuals were sourced. Without
the involvement of a wide range of Caribbean participants, such a forum was
nothing more than a Jamaica IP conference and the results of the consultations
cannot be reflective of the regional interests.
Jamaica
is to be commended for its leading role in hosting the conference as well as
its proactive stance on issues of reproduction rights and the creation of
digital educational materials. It also operates the most progressive copyright
licensing office in the Caribbean and seems to be working very hard to
accommodate the newer forms of digital works which require copyright
protection. The issue of the relevance of intellectual property to regional
growth is yet to be properly addressed and this leaves the majority of
countries asking the question “What’s in it for me?”, and “How do we go about
implementing a system that works for us at home and complies with international
requirements to an acceptable degree?” The
WIPO statistics for 2013 on IP registration in select countries in the
Caribbean indicate that IP has accounted for a very small percentage of the GDP
and that there has been no substantial growth for some time (see WIPO IP Facts
and Figures 2013) ,a more particular example of this is that for the year 2012
Jamaica recorded one hundred and fourteen patent applications and sixty four
for industrial designs, Barbados had a total of thirty six patents, one
thousand three hundred and ninety seven trademark applications and four for industrial designs ,Trinidad and Tobago
recorded nothing in any category, and Guyana had nothing as well. The argument
has been made that several developing countries including Malaysia, Korea,
China, India and Brazil have managed to achieve relatively high levels of
economic growth in the absence of strong intellectual property rights, but this
was all in the past before the internet era dawned changing the economic paradigm,
and introducing a system into which international trade has become subsumed,
and the exchange of all kinds of information has become instantaneous.
It should be of
great concern to thinkers , policy makers
and international organizations
involved in the field of IP ,that such symposia which can help to enlighten and
perhaps redirect regional efforts into positive action, do not reach the
majority that needs the information the most. There is little point in the
continuous hosting of meetings and other talk shops that do not reach top
policymakers and other key decision makers and therefore do not make any
noticeable contribution to changing the ways in which the Caribbean region
treats with intellectual property issues. The approach to creating the balance
of interests in public policy which will allow for IP regimen both compliant
with local needs and international responsibilities requires intellectual
expertise and practical application; thus far Caricom has failed to demonstrate
any leadership in this area and has focused millions of dollars and
considerable attention on reparations from slavery as a means of aiding
development the region, an action so preposterous within the context of modern
development which is based on research
and innovations, that one can hardly
think whether to laugh or cry.
The Organization
of Eastern Caribbean States has begun taking steps towards arranging its IP
affairs in a comprehensive manner after the example of Jamaica and with
properly accessed and applied expertise can be expected to make real progress
within the next five years. In the meantime the statistical and other evidence
on research and innovations as discussed above demonstrate the grave weaknesses
in in policy and practical application across the region, WIPO and other
international organizations which claim to work towards providing relevant
resources for IP development would do well to rework their approach to
Caribbean Intellectual Property.
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