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BUSINESS BRIEF: BARBADOS


BUSINESS BRIEF: BARBADOS


Patents Protection and enforcement Patents are granted for new inventions (worldwide novelty) that express an inventive advance and are industrially applicable. Disclosure by the applicant within one year preceding the date of application is not a bar to novelty.


Some ‘inventions’ are excluded: discoveries; scientific theories; mathematical methods; games, business schemes; mental acts; surgical or therapeutic treatments; diagnostic methods; biological processes; immoral or environmentally prejudicial inventions. Products for use in surgical or therapeutic treatments and diagnostic methods are patentable.


Most patent applications filed in Barbados are national phase entries under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, within the 30-month limit. Local inventors are encouraged to file international applications using WIPO’s International Bureau.


Te inventor must always be identified. An applicant who is not an inventor must state his or her entitlement to the grant (eg, by assignment, inheritance or employment). Foreign applicants must be represented by a local patent agent.


Documentary requirements include a power of attorney; specification; drawings; statement of ownership or assignment (if the inventor is not the applicant); copies of any communication, decision or search relating to the invention; priority documents. All non-English words or documents must be translated into English.


Te grant lasts 20 years from the filing date. Annuities become payable from the second year aſter the filing date; late payment within six months attracts a penalty. Tere is no opposition procedure.


Licences must be registered. A compulsory licence may be granted if an invention is not being sufficiently used; importation is considered to be ‘use’. Proceedings for invalidation and infringement, and appeals against a compulsory licence, can be filed at the High Court by any interested person. Remedies include an injunction and/or damages.


Trademarks Registration and protection Trade, service, certification and collective marks may be registered. Te common law action of passing off provides additional protection for unregistered marks and trade dress.


Marks must be visible signs; sound and smell marks are not permitted. Although well-known marks are protected, there is neither a definition nor official listing of ‘well-known’ marks.


Non-English words and documents must be translated and/or transliterated into English. Priority may be claimed based on an earlier application in another Paris Convention or TRIPS Agreement member country, supported by a certified official copy of the prior application.


Barbados uses the Nice Classification (10th Edition): applicants should stick as closely as possible to the language of the classification, in order to avoid costly office actions. Registration may be opposed during the 90 days aſter publication in the Official Gazette.


Use is not required for registration or renewal, but a mark may be removed from the register if it has become generic or if it has fallen into disuse for five years between registration and application for removal. Registration lasts for 10 years and may be renewed every 10 years, with a six-month grace period for late renewal (at additional cost).


112 World Intellectual Property Review Annual 2012


Foreign applicants must have a local agent. Te average cost to register a mark is about $950, including estimated advertising rates which vary. A typical office action runs to about $280. Te cost of opposition proceedings will depend on the particulars of the case.


Changes to the owner’s name must be recorded in the register, supported by a certified copy of the official document effecting the change. Changes of address must also be notified, but no supporting evidence is required.


Transfers of ownership must be registered. Licences need not be registered, but an unregistered licence will not affect third parties.


A registered owner whose rights are being, or are about to be, infringed may seek relief by injunction, damages and/or an order for the erasure, removal, obliteration, delivery up or destruction, of the offending material. Penalties for competitive offences or infringement range from a fine of $5,000 or imprisonment for two to six years or both, to $20,000 or imprisonment for 10 years or both; continuing offences attract additional fines of $500 per day.


Key threats and common mistakes Because Barbados is very small, some believe they can get away with infringing on the trademarks or trade dress of foreign businesses. Imported knock-offs may be caught at customs if the owner of the mark is aware of the importation. Te offended owner can object to entry and seek detention and ultimately destruction of goods bearing infringing marks.


Infringement online, where there are no borders and transactions and identities are harder to verify, is virtually impossible to police. ‘Ostrich syndrome’—refusing to conduct market research and clearance searches before adopting a mark—is a common mistake of trademark owners. Failure


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