JIPO Undertakes Project To Assist MSMEs

Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) are to benefit from an intellectual property (IP) monetisation and financing project being undertaken by the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office (JIPO).

Speaking at the IP Valuation and IP-Based Financing for MSMEs Webinar held recently, JIPO’s Deputy Director and Legal Counsel, Dr. Marcus Goffe, said the project will aid IP owners and MSMEs in securing the funding needed for them to impact economic growth.

“We are seeking to merge and bridge the IP advancement agenda and needs of Jamaican MSMEs with the financial and regulatory requirements, so that we can have an easier ‘path to market’,” Dr. Goffe said.

“We really want to focus on and highlight this timely and novel project of trying to grapple with this, to put more money in the hands of the creatives who need it and who can then multiply it for their own advancement and for the advancement of the nation. It’s a very important project that we are very excited to be implementing,” he added.

The Deputy Director explained that under the project, JIPO will be working alongside consultants and local stakeholders. The partners will explore the challenges and opportunities locally to prepare stakeholders for better participation in the digital economy, better use of digital IP assets and identify how financial systems can support this participation.

“The MSME is our major concern, so we have several components of the project that are geared towards trying to fill some of the key gaps identified in the ecosystem locally. Component 1 is looking at IP monetisation and capacity building to build a culture of IP monetisation and to increase awareness of the benefits of IP registration.” Dr. Goffe said.

“For Component 2 we will be looking at the IP valuation framework, a very key aspect of what is needed for the ecosystem locally to really work. Then in component 3, we will be looking at designing and testing a financial product that will be able to work for the MSMEs and the financial institutions,” he added.

Sector Senior Associate at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Kayla Grant, explained that “the project is a very novel solution to address one of the major barriers MSMEs face in pursuing innovation and growth objectives, which is accessing finance”.

For his part, Director of Projects at the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Daniel Best, commended Jamaica’s leadership in the region in the area of access to financing and the CDB’s enthusiasm to partner with JIPO on this project.

“We know that sustained access to finance by the productive sector is not a sprint event and there is still work to be done,” Mr. Best said.

“It is against this background that CDB is extremely pleased to partner with IDB and JIPO in this innovative project, which seeks to strengthen the intellectual property ecosystem in Jamaica by helping to create the conditions for IP monetisation, more specifically commercialisation and collateralisation. This will make it possible for MSMEs to be able to effectively leverage their IP assets for financing,” he noted.

The JIPO project is being undertaken in partnership with the IDB, CDB and the Compete Caribbean Partnership Facility. IP valuation training under the project is scheduled to commence in June.

The webinar was part of the Office’s activities to commemorate Intellectual Property Week 2021.