Focus On Intellectual Property April 22-28

The Jamaica Intellectual Property Office (JIPO) will be educating members of the public on the importance of intellectual property  and how they can benefit, during Intellectual Property (IP) Week 2012, slated for April 22 to 28.

Themed ‘Nation Building through Creativity and Innovation’, the week’s activities will include a church service, an open day, exhibitions and seminars. 

“All our activities will be centred around helping the Jamaican people maximise their intellectual property potential,” Managing Director of Copyright and Related Rights at JIPO, Joan Webley, told JIS News.

“IP Week is significant because it is in this week that we draw attention to all the agency’s initiatives and highlight all the opportunities that exist within intellectual property,” Miss Webley said.

“We find more and more persons turning to intellectual property to figure out how they can repackage raw material or possible assets that they have laying idle,” she added.

The week’s activity will begin with praise and worship on Sunday, April 22 at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kingston.

On Monday (April 23), JIPO will host a press launch at the JAMPRO Building on Trafalgar Road, in New Kingston, followed by an Open Day in the parking lot.

“We will be inviting members of the public to come and view trademark owners and see what the benefits of intellectual property can bring, be it geographical indications, trademarks, industrial designs or copyright,” she informed.

On Thursday, April 26, World IP Day, JIPO in partnership with Nunes, Scholefield, Deleon & Company (Attorneys-at-Law), will be staging a seminar dubbed: ‘Information Technology and Intellectual Property’ at the JAMPRO Boardroom beginning at 9:00 a.m.

The week’s activities will culminate on Friday (April 27) with the ‘JIPO Western Outreach’ at Sam Sharp Square, Montego Bay, where JIPO representatives will be sharing information about intellectual property and related matters.

Miss Webley  said that special focus will be on traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, which are “new forms of intellectual property that are emerging and which reside within our Maroon and Rastafari indigenous communities.”

“The main areas and sectors we are targeting are the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), as we want to show them how intellectual property is applicable to them, how relevant it is for them to protect their goods when it comes to branding,” she told JIS News.

“We are targeting our emerging industries…so our technology innovators, the creative industry, the farmer who is benefitting or could benefit from geographical indications for the protection of his ginger or the coffee farmer , the jerk producer. We want to show them how JIPO can play a part in their lives,” Miss Webley noted.

Explaining what IP is, Miss Webley said that, “it is that sort of protection that is given to intangible material or the product of your creativity or innovation… once you write a poem, create a song, invent a machine, you are able to protect that creativity or innovation and benefit from it.”

“It is also about the original creations of the mind, how you protect them and how you benefit from them,” she added.

By Kadian Brown, JIS PRO