CARIBBEAN
CARIBBEAN
(1913), 24 Cox’s Criminal Law Cases, 60, a matter that came before the English King’s Bench Division … the respondent had been charged with unlawfully selling as ‘Demerara sugar’ a sugar that was ‘cane sugar crystals coloured with an organic dye foreign to genuine Demerara sugar, so that the sugar was not of the quality, substance, or nature of the article demanded by the purchaser’.
“It was found that the sugar was a crystallized cane sugar grown in Mauritius and coloured with dye. Te magistrate had dismissed the charge, finding that the term ‘Demerara sugar’ was a generic term applicable to any sugar of the substance, kind, and colour of the sugar in question wherever produced, and that therefore the said sugar was of the nature, substance, and quality of the article demanded by the appellant, the purchaser, and that accordingly the sale was not to his prejudice, and that no offence had been committed by the respondent.”
Te judge in Bedessee also reviewed UK case law from the early 20th century to come to a conclusion. Te judge noted that: “In dismissing the appeal, Darling J., with whom Avory and Atkin JJ. agreed, stated ‘It would appear that Demerara sugar does not mean sugar having certain qualities peculiar to Demerara sugar, but it means a sugar which is cane sugar and which has a particular colour owing to certain treatment, and it is stated that Demerara sugar as originally produced was white, and probably if a person asked for Demerara sugar and was offered real Demerara sugar in its natural state he would refuse it.’”
The Canadian case appeared to follow this view: “In dismissing the appeal, Darling J., with whom Avory and Atkin JJ. agreed, stated at p. 65 ‘It was stated and admitted that with regard to Demerara sugar the word Demerara, as applied to sugar, does not mean sugar grown only in Demerara; it means sugar grown in Demerara, or in Grenada, Martinique, or St. Kitts, or Tobago, or Barbados, or Dominics [sic] or in many other islands of the West India group, and therefore the case really is hardly distinguishable from that of a Brussels carpet, which nobody supposes to be necessarily a carpet made in Brussels, or the case of a Cambridge sausage, which I suppose nobody believes to come necessarily from Cambridge.’”
Te UK judge’s decision in 1913 must be questioned. Comparing an agricultural product that is associated with the Caribbean, at least with a certain degree of quality and geographical location, to a Brussels carpet or Cambridge sausage, is dismissive. More so is the Canadian court’s apparent endorsement of this analogy.
82 World Intellectual Property Review e-Digest 2012
However, the government of Guyana has been remiss in protecting its IP rights. For instance, there is still no law for protecting GIs, under which a certification for Demerara in relation to sugar could have been made.
Repository for IP
In Anguilla, British West Indies, the government is looking at ways of capitalising on the country’s tax-free status with respect to IP. This initiative was spearheaded by Anguilla Music Publishing & Production Company (AMPP), a joint venture enterprise involving local and overseas partners.
AMPP’s mission is to attain for the Caribbean’s authentic brand of music and culture a higher level of recognition using the world’s most sophisticated technology. To this end, they aim to profit from global e-commerce by effectively collecting and subsequently administering existing IP as well as creating new IP and other unique Caribbean content.
As a result, they are creating a repository for all forms of IP, with a focus on Caribbean culture and content that is then administered offshore and on-island by AMPP.
AMPP also has a joint venture with the government of Anguilla to engage young people of Anguilla and the Caribbean in musical arts and related technologies.
Tira Greene is a partner at Greene and Greene. She can be contacted at:
tiragreene@yahoo.com
Tira Greene provides legislative assistance to governments and IP registries worldwide. In the government of Trinidad & Tobago, Tira Greene was the chief legal drafter of the new IP legislation. She has also drafted new TRIPS-compliant IP legislation (including regulations) for more than a dozen countries worldwide including, as a WIPO consultant, for Mauritius and Ghana and, as an expert consultant, for Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, and several member states of the OECS. Greene and Greene is a boutique law firm, providing efficient advice on all IP law matters, as well as registration services.
www.worldipreview.com
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