A week dedicated to intellectual property
WHILE MATTERS of intellectual property are relevant year-round, to a country with Jamaica’s prodigious creative output, this week there will be an especially strong focus as the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office (JIPO) marks Intellectual Property Week 2018.
It began on Sunday with a church service at the Swallowfield Chapel, St Andrew, and continued yesterday with The Business of Writing seminar at the JAMPRO building, Trafalgar Road, New Kingston.
Lilyclaire Bailey, JIPO’s executive director, noted the seminar’s educational thrust, telling participants her hope is that at the end of the day they would have learnt something. Connecting creativity, business and recent state-level developments, Bailey expressed her satisfaction with new Minister of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries Audley Shaw (under whose ministry they operate) and his financial background. Thursday, April 26, is World Intellectual Property Day 2018, on which JIPO will also host special celebrations.
ESSENCE OF BEING HUMAN
As it was World Book and Copyright Day, the Jamaican Copyright Licensing Agency’s (JAMCOPY) Carol Newman indicated the ways in which a book can be packaged and its contents utilised, from hard cover to paperback, through to film (including DVDs and television) and dramatic productions. “The creative intellect is what largely defines us as human beings,” Newman said.
The finances were not left out, as she said it is a critical area of development for individuals and the nation. This year JAMCOPY marks two decades of existence.
Isabel Viera Bermudez, adviser on communications and information at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), gave the history of a formal annual intellectual property observance, which underscored the importance of pushing respect for those rights, “especially among the younger generation”.
Intellectual Property Week continues today with JIPO Designs Day, and tomorrow there will be Destruction Day, as well as a Monetising Patents seminar. On Friday, there will be public outreach to tertiary institutions.