BUSINESS BRIEF: BARBADOS
BUSINESS BRIEF: BARBADOS
Patents Protection and enforcement Protection is available for new,
inventive,
industrially applicable inventions. Too oſten, ignorance of the novelty requirement leads to premature disclosure and loss of novelty. Disclosure is not taken into consideration if it occurred within 12 months before the filing date (or priority date).
Te following are not eligible for protection: 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.
Information on existing patents granted or pending applications is available to the public free of charge, at the IP Office.
Local inventors typically file international applications
through WIPO’s Bureau. Most patent applications
Barbados are Patent Cooperation Treaty national phase entries (30 month limit).
Documentary requirements include: authorisation of the local agent (if the applicant is non-resident); 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. Annual maintenance fees start on the second anniversary of the filing date, with a six-month grace period. Tere is no opposition procedure.
Licences must be registered. A compulsory
International filed in
licence may be granted if an invention is not being sufficiently used; importation is considered to be ‘use’. Any interested person may apply to the High Court for a declaration of invalidity or to protest the grant of a compulsory licence. A patent owner may apply for relief against infringement. Remedies include an injunction and/or damages.
Trademarks Registration and protection Visible signs may be registered as trade, service, certification or collective marks. It is not possible to register sound or smell marks. Well-known marks are protected, but there is neither a definition nor a register of what are considered to be ‘well-known’ marks.
Priority may be claimed from an earlier application filed in another Paris Convention or TRIPS Agreement member, supported by a certified official copy of the prior application. Non-English words and documents must be translated and/or transliterated into English.
Barbados uses the Nice Classification (10th Edition) for goods and services. Multi-class applications are not permitted: each class of the same mark requires a separate application and is treated as a distinct mark.
Foreign applicants must have a local agent. Once the IPO accepts the mark, there is a 90-day opposition period following advertisement in the Official Gazette.
Registration lasts for 10 years and may be renewed every 10 years, with a six-month late renewal period (at additional cost).
Te average cost to register a mark is about US$950; a typical office action costs about US$280. Te cost of opposition proceedings depends on the particulars of the case.
112 World Intellectual Property Review Annual 2013
Tere is no use requirement, but a registered mark may be removed from the register if it has become generic or has fallen into disuse for five years immediately preceding the removal application.
Transfers of ownership and changes of owner’s name or address must be registered. Licences affect third parties only if registered. Note that a licence to use a mark is deemed to be a franchise under the Franchises Act.
Additional protection is available for unregistered marks and trade dress through the common law action of passing-off, and under the Protection against Unfair Competition Act, which deals with competitive offences.
Threats to owners and remedies Most consumer goods found in Barbados are imported. A mark owner who becomes aware of an imminent shipment of counterfeit or grey goods may notify customs of the shipment, object to entry and seek detention and ultimately destruction of goods bearing infringing marks.
Relief is by way of 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 US$5,000 or imprisonment for two to six years or both, to US$20,000 or imprisonment for 10 years or both; continuing offences attract additional fines of US$500 per day.
Common mistakes Trademark owners are oſten reluctant to invest in market research and clearance searches before adopting and developing a mark. Failure to register and then monitor marks, especially on the Internet, and thinking of the Caribbean islands as a single legal jurisdiction, are also common.
www.worldipreview.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168