As the Office of the Attorney General moves swiftly to ensure Intellectual Property (IP) rights are protected, modules have already been approved to beef-up training for police and custom officers in this area.
Law students are also expected to be schooled in similar courses as a project is being pursued by the Intellectual Property Organisation (IPO) to develop a holistic approach to raise the level of understanding of IP among citizens, businesses and institutions via the establishment of an Intellectual Property Academy.
This is being done through the IPO with assistance from the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) Academy.
So said acting permanent secretary in the Office of the Attorney General, Ingrid Seerattan, while speaking at a workshop titled How to make a living from music. It was hosted by the T&T Music Company Ltd (MusicTT) in collaboration with the AG’s office and the WIPO held at the Cascadia Hotel, St Ann’s yesterday.
“One of the modules approved by the WIPO Academy is the IP Clinic for second year law students at the Sir Hugh Wooding Law School taught at the IPO for the last seven years. Other modules agreed to in principle include training for police and customs officers,” Seerattan said.
She said there was a PSIP project on “Building Respect” for IP which was put forward in fiscal 2015/2016 aimed at sustainable public education.
A draft IP strategy was also currently before the AG’s office which would take cognisance of intellectual assets that may be languishing within the public sector or “sub-optimally” exploited Seerattan said, adding that the strategy was currently being reviewed by the economic advisory board.
Saying this country has one of the most robust IP systems in the entire Caribbean, Seerattan said however, in most cases, excellent creative effort was given away or simply placed into the public domain for others to profit from.
“There are many pockets of creativity operating in need of some cohesion and appreciation of how intellectual property can greatly enhance the value-added that can be extracted,” she said.
She said it was no secret that the music and creative industries have tremendous potential to diversify T&T’s economy and propel this country toward utilising its innate talent to achieve economic prosperity.
A study done in 2014 by WIPO, found that the copyright industry and all the economic activity that hinged on the economic rights supported by copyright and related rights lone contributed roughly under five per cent of this country’s GDP, Seerattan said.
Permanent secretary of Ministry of Trade and Industry, Frances Seignoret, who also spoke, described the creative industry as the bedrock of innovation particularly music.
“We are cognisant of the projections of PriceWaterhouse Coopers that revenue from the global music industry is expected to grow from US$42.93 billion in 2015 to over US$47.7 billion in 2020. The opportunities for success and sustainability are palpable with the tools, information and dedication of the music businessperson,” Seignoret said.
She said the Ministry of Trade was mandated to develop globally competitive businesses and expand exports, particularly in the non-energy sector.
IPO was also considered a net generator of revenue having earned $18.7 million in gross revenue from 1995 to 2005 and from 2006 to 2015 it generated $48.8 million in gross revenue, Seignoret said.
