Corporate Affairs and Intellectual Property Office

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The Corporate Affairs and Intellectual Property Office (CAIPO) is a Barbadian governmental agency in charge of various aspects of industrial property right affairs including: patents, trademarks, and industrial designs. It is a division of the Ministry of Industry & International Business. The CAIPO office is located on Belmont Road, Saint Michael, Barbados. The country ranks as one of the top countries where the greatest number of foreign patents are legally based. [1]

The Government of Barbados (GoB), is symbolically headed by the monarch, Queen Elizabeth II as Head of State. She is represented in the country by the Governor-General, currently Dame Sandra Mason, G.C.M.G., K.A.

Intellectual property Notion of ownership of ideas and processes

Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The most well-known types are copyrights, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets. Early precursors to some types of intellectual property existed in societies such as Ancient Rome, but the modern concept of intellectual property developed in England in the 17th and 18th centuries. The term "intellectual property" began to be used in the 19th century, though it was not until the late 20th century that intellectual property became commonplace in the majority of the world's legal systems.

Patent Intellectual property conferring a monopoly on a new invention

A patent is a form of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, selling and importing an invention for a limited period of years, in exchange for publishing an enabling public disclosure of the invention. In most countries patent rights fall under civil law and the patent holder needs to sue someone infringing the patent in order to enforce his or her rights. In some industries patents are an essential form of competitive advantage; in others they are irrelevant.

Contents

National legislation

Corporate affairs in Barbados are covered by the following Acts: [2]

Intellectual property in Barbados are covered by the following Acts:

At the international level, the department works very closely with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and its subregional unit known as the Cooperation for Development Bureau for Latin American and Caribbean.

World Intellectual Property Organization Specialised agency of the United Nations

The World Intellectual Property Organization is one of the 15 specialized agencies of the United Nations (UN). WIPO was created in 1967 "to encourage creative activity, to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world".

Treaties and conventions

Barbados is a signatory to the following copyright and intellectual property treaties and conventions influencing local laws:

Treaty or ConventionYear it was establishedLocally ratified into law
Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works,1886ratified: 30 July 1983 [4]
Geneva Convention for the Producers of Phonograms Against Unauthorized Duplication 1971ratified: July 29, 1983 [5]
Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents - (the Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents)1961Succession for Barbados 30 November 1966. Barbados maintains that since the United Kingdom entered into the agreement on 24 February 1965 that it is compulsory for Barbados which didn't become independent until 1966. [6]
Nice Agreement concerning the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of Registration of Marks 1967ratified: 12 March 1985 [7]
Nairobi Treaty (Olympic Symbol)ratified: 28 February 1986 [8]
Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property 1883 (as revised in 1967)ratified: 12 March 1985 [9]
Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)1970ratified: 12 March 1985 [10]
Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organisations 1961ratified: 18 September 1983 [11]
Universal Copyright Convention (UCC-Geneva)1952ascension: 3 March 1983 [12]
Universal Copyright Convention (UCC-Paris)(as revised in 1971)ascension: 3 March 1983 [13]
Membership to the WIPO [14]
WTO-TRIPS Agreement on the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property 1994ratified: 1 January 1995

Currently Barbados has yet to finalise or is absent from:

Treaty or ConventionYear it was establishedNote
Brussels Convention Relating to the Distribution of Programme–Carrying Signals Transmitted by Satellite 1974Some provisions within the United States – Caribbean Basin Initiative already have recourse for United States-based satellite providers to be compensated through other means within that act.
Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure (Budapest)1977
Patent Law Treaty (PLT)2000
WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT)1996
WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT)1996

Domain names and trademarks

Additionally, CAIPO is entrusted with the handling of legal issues pertaining to Barbados' .bb ccTLD and second-level domains including: .co.bb, .com.bb, .net.bb, .org.bb, .info.bb, .store.bb, .tv.bb, .biz.bb .

.bb is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Barbados. The .bb top-level domain has been maintained by several administrators since its creation. The first of which was the University of Puerto Rico. In 1996 the Government of Barbados sought the relegation of .bb to the incumbent local exchange carrier, Cable & Wireless (BARTEL) Ltd. A 2001 Memorandum of Understanding was then later signed between the Government of Barbados and both Cable & Wireless (Bartel) Ltd. and its sister company Cable & Wireless (BET) Ltd., to continue the administration of the ".bb" domains until the government selected alternate directives. In November, 2007 .bb was again relegated to the Telecoms Unit within the Government of Barbados.

See also

A patent office is a governmental or intergovernmental organization which controls the issue of patents. In other words, "patent offices are government bodies that may grant a patent or reject the patent application based on whether the application fulfils the requirements for patentability."

Related Research Articles

The World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty is an international treaty on copyright law adopted by the member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 1996. It provides additional protections for copyright to respond to advances in information technology since the formation of previous copyright treaties before it. The WCT and WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty, are together termed WIPO "internet treaties".

The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, signed in Paris, France, on 20 March 1883, was one of the first intellectual property treaties. It established a Union for the protection of industrial property. The Convention is currently still in force. The substantive provisions of the Convention fall into three main categories: national treatment, priority right and common rules.

The WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty is an international treaty signed by the member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization was adopted in Geneva on 20 December 1996. It came into effect on 20 May 2002. As of December 2014, the treaty has been ratified by 94 states.

The Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organisations was accepted by members of BIRPI, the predecessor to the modern World Intellectual Property Organization, on 26 October 1961. The agreement extended copyright protection for the first time from the author of a work to the creators and owners of particular, physical manifestations of intellectual property, such as audiocassettes or videocassettes.

Intellectual property law in Romania has developed significantly in the period since the Romanian Revolution of 1989 because of the need to enforce various regional and international treaties and agreements, such as the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), the European Directives on Biotechnological Inventions, on Trademarks and Geographical Indications, and on Supplementary protection certificates, the Trademark Law Treaty, the Patent Law Treaty, and the European Union regulation on the Community Trademark, and the need to harmonize domestic patent law with the European Patent Convention (EPC) and with the European Union.

Since 2008 copyright in Afghanistan has been governed by the law on the support the right of authors, composers, artists and researchers.

Berne Convention 1880s international copyright treaty adopted by 160+ countriesee

The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne Convention, is an international agreement governing copyright, which was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland, in 1886.

TRIPS Agreement International treaty on intellectual property protections

The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is an international legal agreement between all the member nations of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It sets down minimum standards for the regulation by national governments of many forms of intellectual property (IP) as applied to nationals of other WTO member nations. TRIPS was negotiated at the end of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) between 1989 and 1990 and is administered by the WTO.

Panama has passed several laws protecting intellectual property in the country.

Iran is a member of the WIPO since 2001 and has acceded to several WIPO intellectual property treaties. Iran joined the Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property in 1959. In December 2003 Iran became a party to the Madrid Agreement and the Madrid Protocol for the International Registration of Marks. In 2005 Iran joined the Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin and their International Registration, which ensures the protection of geographical names associated with products. As at February 2008 Iran had yet to accede to The Hague Agreement for the Protection of Industrial Designs.

Intellectual Property Office of Singapore

The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) is a statutory board under the Singapore Ministry of Law of the Singapore Government. IPOS advises on and administers intellectual property (IP) laws, promotes IP awareness, and provides the infrastructure to facilitate the development of IP in Singapore.

The copyright law of South Africa governs copyright, the right to control the use and distribution of artistic and creative works, in the Republic of South Africa. It is embodied in the Copyright Act, 1978 and its various amendment acts, and administered by the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission in the Department of Trade and Industry. As of March 2019 a major amendment to the law in the Copyright Amendment Bill has been approved by the South African Parliament and is awaiting signature by the President.

Republic Act No. 8293, otherwise known as The Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines lays down the rules and regulations that grant, and enforce patents in the Philippines. Patents may be granted to technical solutions such as an inventions, machines, devices, processes, or an improvement of any of the foregoing. The technical solution must be novel, innovative, and industrially useful. In order for a technical solution to be granted a patent, the inventor must file an application to the Bureau of Patents, which will examine, and in some cases, grant its approval. The law is designed as to foster domestic creativity, to attract foreign investors, and to motivate inventors to release their products for public access.

References

  1. ↑ Staff writer (30 September 2010). "Innovation in Asia: Trading places - China is about to overtake Japan in patent applications". The Economist . Retrieved 11 January 2011. The countries where the greatest number of foreign patents are legally based are Barbados, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and Ireland, notes the OECD.
  2. ↑ "IP National Intellectual Property legislation in Barbados" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-12-09. Retrieved 2009-08-18.
  3. ↑ "Patent Act" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-06-04. Retrieved 2010-02-07.
  4. ↑ Berne Convention
  5. ↑ "Protection of Producers of Phonograms Against Unauthorized Duplication of Their Phonograms". Archived from the original on 2011-06-05. Retrieved 2009-08-18.
  6. ↑ Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents: Signed 24 February 1965 by the United Kingdom
  7. ↑ "Nice Agreement concerning the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of Registration of Marks, 1967". Archived from the original on 2011-06-05. Retrieved 2009-08-18.
  8. ↑ "Nairobi Treaty". Archived from the original on 2007-12-19. Retrieved 2009-08-18.
  9. ↑ "Paris Treaty". Archived from the original on 2011-06-05. Retrieved 2009-08-18.
  10. ↑ PCT Treaty
  11. ↑ "Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organisations". Archived from the original on 2011-06-05. Retrieved 2009-08-18.
  12. ↑ Universal Copyright Convention, with Appendix Declaration relating to Article XVII and Resolution concerning Article XI. Geneva, 6 September 1952
  13. ↑ Universal Copyright Convention, as revised on 24 July 1971
  14. ↑ "WIPO membership - Barbados: October, 1979" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-12-09. Retrieved 2009-08-18.
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