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Deputy Registrar of the Corporate Affairs and Intellectual Property Office (CAIPO), Deborah Beckles, addressing participants at the training session. (C. Pitt/BGIS)??

Local manufacturers have been urged to be creative and strive for originality in designing their trademarks.

This advice has come from Deputy Registrar of the Corporate Affairs and Intellectual Property Office (CAIPO), Deborah Beckles, as she addressed manufacturers today during a training session at the Barbados Manufacturers’ Association’s (BMA) Harbour Industrial Estate, St. Michael office.

She explained that a trademark was a visible sign used to distinguish the goods or services of one trader from those of another. Such signs, she said, could include words that featured names, signatures, colours, designs, letters, numbers and the shape of the goods or their packaging or any combination of those mentioned.

Ms. Beckles also stated that before registering a trademark, the owner should first search the Trademark register located at CAIPO to ensure that what they wanted was not already in use.

"If the trademark is already registered by someone else as a business name you will not be allowed to register it as a trademark," she said.

However, she explained that, if the person were the owner of the business name and wanted to establish it as their trademark then they could do so. "You don’t need a business name to register a trademark," she stated.

The Duty Registrar also advised anyone seeking to register a trademark to think about the market and the product line they wanted to use before making the application.

"You must think strategically. You should not leave out an item because you are still negotiating with the supplier. Rather, ensure it is on the list of goods you will be offering and you can complete the negotiations later," she said.

Ms. Beckles explained that anyone seeking to register a trademark was required to outline the goods and services they would be offering. "Once you receive the registration certificate outlining the goods and services being offered you cannot add another item," she stressed.

"We don’t have multiclass registration. For each class you must have separate registration," Ms. Beckles said.

She added that even in the case of a renewal of the trademark, new goods or services cannot be added, though some of those present could be taken off.

Those present were urged to note that one of the fundamentals in dealing with trademarks was to ensure that goods were examined correctly so they could be correctly classified.

julia.rawlins-bentham@barbados.gov.bb

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