Jamaica to Lead the Way in Training on Intellectual Property

Jamaica is set to lead the region in the development of training programmes and various educational tools, designed for target groups in the creative industries and which address the management of intellectual property.
Seminars addressing this and other related areas have already been conducted with the assistance of representatives of the Technical Assistance and Capacity Building Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and the Jamaica Intellectual Property Organisation (JIPO).
The WIPO officials were in the island recently to present the seminar to persons in the music industry and to discuss other possible areas of collaboration and training. They also met with the Minister of Information, Culture, Youth and Sports, Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange’ at Jamaica House.
The discussions centred on the possibility of developing a training programme to train managers, creators and publishers of the music industry and to focus on the training of trainers who can duplicate the training programmes locally and possibly throughout the region. The meeting also addressed the possibility of establishing a week of activities during Intellectual Property week in April.
Minister Grange noted that there is a need for training of managers, particularly in the music industry. She expressed concern that Jamaica has yet to benefit from the wealth created by its music internationally because of the lack of knowledge of the business by persons in the industry.
The WIPO representatives also want to look at a programme to introduce the concept of intellectual property in primary and secondary schools. A recommendation was made for the setting up of a small task force of all the stakeholders to develop a strategy for a programme to be instituted in the schools.
Meanwhile Jamaica has again been invited by WIPO to participate in the international creative industries conference in Geneva from Oct 21-22. Jamaica was represented at last year’s conference by a team headed by Minister Grange.