BUSINESS BRIEF: BARBADOS
“ON THE REGULATORY SIDE, MORE WORK MUST BE DONE TO UPGRADE THE EXISTING LAWS AND ESPECIALLY THEIR SUPPORTING REGULATIONS, TO FACILITATE THE PROTECTION AND ENFORCEMENT OF IP RIGHTS.”
Copyright Tere is at present no formal registration system for copyrighted materials. Local creators are encouraged to date a record of their creation and send it to themselves by registered post, not to be opened except in court as evidence of the date and content of their creation.
Where appropriate, creators are encouraged to join a collective society. Use of digital rights management features is recommended, where possible.
One of the main challenges for large-scale
foreign rights owners (such as major movie studios) is the disproportionate cost of enforcement of
environment. With a local population of just over 280,000 persons, it is oſten not worth it to police infringement of rights by individuals. However,
large scale copying has been prosecuted when detected.
Key threats to rights owners Counterfeiting and piracy All rights owners face the challenge of a general lack of awareness of and respect for IP rights.
Both private sector and publicly funded agencies engage in outreach
programmes, targeting
school-aged consumers and the wider public, but there remains much to be done to develop an ingrained culture of respect for IP rights generally. Some probably don’t think of copying as ‘wrong’, while others do it in the full
their
www.worldipreview.com rights in a relatively small
knowledge of their crime but willing to take the risk and pay the penalty.
Te problem is most acute with respect to piracy of digital property (movies, music, etc) which are more easily accessed and copied than tangible property containing intangible rights.
Rights owners must understand that although criminal prosecution by the state is possible and desirable, their IP rights are private rights, and they must take the initiative to protect and enforce those rights. One area of concern is the failure to treat creative industries as a business and ensure that the proper contracts are in place before creating complex works of musical productions and performances, for instance. Tis failure oſten makes it difficult to successfully enforce all the relevant rights, especially in the area of copyright protection.
On the regulatory side, more work must be done to upgrade the existing laws and especially their supporting regulations, to facilitate the protection and enforcement of IP rights. Te basic laws are in place but the supporting regulations, forms and procedures require updating.
Recent changes in the laws Tere have been no significant changes in Barbados’ IP laws or regulations since 2006.
Rosalind Smith Millar is a partner at Clarke Gittens Farmer. She can be contacted at:
rsm@clarkes.com.bb
World Intellectual Property Review Annual 2013 113
Rosalind Smith Millar specialises in IP (especially trademark and industrial design registration) and real property law. Clarke Gittens Farmer is the Barbados member of Lex Mundi, the world’s leading association of independent law firms.
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