BUSINESS BRIEF: BARBADOS
BUSINESS BRIEF: BARBADOS
Te Caribbean’s easternmost island of Barbados is a small state of 431 square kilometres, with a population under 290,000. Tere are very few natural resources and almost no manufacturing industries.
As most consumer goods are imported, exposing brands and technology of foreign rights owners to locals as well as to the more than one million tourists who visit year round for sun, sea and sand, a strong IP rights protection regime is de rigueur.
Barbados is now diverting some of its attention from Europe and North America, the traditional markets for tourism, towards the East, particularly China (probably the world’s largest economy and largest trading country) as a source for tourism and trade. It is anticipated that, like other tourists and business visitors, eastern visitors will want to see familiar brands in their preferred tourist destinations.
Trademarks
How do you register or secure trademark rights, and what protection does it grant? 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; sound and smell marks are not permitted. Well-known marks are protected, but there is no definition or official listing of “well-known” marks.
Non-English words and documents must be translated and/or transliterated into English. Priority may be claimed under the Paris Convention or TRIPS Agreement, supported by a certified official copy of the prior application.
Barbados uses the Nice Classification (10th Edition). Registration may be opposed during the 90 days following publication in the Official Gazette.
Use is not required for registration or renewal. 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, and each subsequent renewal, lasts ten years. Tere is a six-month late renewal grace period (at additional cost).
What are the costs for registering a trademark, and what are the costs of defending it?
Te average cost to register a mark is about US$950, including estimated advertising rates. A typical office action runs about US$280. Te cost of opposition proceedings will depend on the particulars of the case. Foreign applicants must have a local agent.
Changes of owner’s name must be recorded, supported by a certified copy of
the official
document affecting 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.
Redress for actual or threatened infringement is by way of injunction, damages and/or an order for the erasure, removal, obliteration, delivery up or destruction, of
object to entry and seek detention and ultimately destruction of infringing goods.
Infringement online, where there are no borders and transactions and identities are harder to verify, is virtually impossible to police.
What are the most common mistakes trademark owners make?
A common mistake of trademark owners is their refusal to conduct market research and clearance searches before adopting a mark. Failure to register, and then monitor, marks, especially on the internet, and thinking that the Caribbean is one legal jurisdiction, are common mistakes.
PATENTS
How do you register or secure patent rights, and is national or international coverage most appropriate?
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.
the offending material.
Penalties for competitive offences or infringement range from a fine of US$5,000 and/or two to six years’ imprisonment, to US$20,000 and/or ten years’ imprisonment; continuing offences attract additional fines of US$500 per day.
What are the key threats to trademark owners, and what is the best strategy for dealing with infringement?
Infringing on the trademarks or trade dress of foreign businesses may occur. Imported copies may be caught at customs if the owner of the mark knows of the importation. Te owner can
110 World Intellectual Property Review Annual 2014
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.
Te period for entering the national phase under the Patent Cooperation Treaty is 30 months. 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 entitlement to the grant (eg, by assignment, inheritance or employment). Foreign applicants must be represented by a local patent agent.
www.worldipreview.com
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