The Government of Saint Lucia will be hosting a World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO ) meeting this week.
WIPO is one of the 15 specialised agencies in the United Nations. The organization was created in 1967 to promote the protection of Intellectual Property across the globe.
Permanent Secretary in the Attorney General’s Chambers, Juliana Alfred says the meeting provides a host of opportunities for the country.
“This meeting is actually held bi annually, it was last held in Jamaica and for Saint Lucia to be able to host it, it gives really an opportunity for us as a country to learn from the best practices from our neighbours as it relates to Intellectual Property because we will have Ministers from various islands in the region who will be representing at that meeting so it allowed Saint Lucia to learn, to share and I think also it allowed us to enhance our advocacy as it relates to issues of Intellectual Property”
Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind. This includes written and artistic work, inventions, designs and even names and symbols used with regard to commerce. IP can be broken down into categories of Copyright, trademark and patents.
These categories enable owners of IP to earn recognition or financial rewards from their creations, as well as the right to determine how such property is used.
“One of the important outcome we expect as it relates to this meeting is at it relates to patent regulation. Saint Lucia has not made enough progress as it relates to that and we are hoping after this meeting that we can in fact say that we are ready as it relates to the patent regulations. We want also to be able to develop a trademarks manual, so this meeting will give us an opportunity to move forward in terms of that process.”
The WIPO Ministerial level Meeting on Intellectual Property for Caribbean countries will be broadcast live on the National Television Network on July 26, 2018 at 9:00am.
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