Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and International Business, Donville Inniss.
With the emergence of the internet and information technology systems, Barbados must selfishly guard its creative expressions and inventions in order to protect them from copyright infringement, and reap the rewards and recognition of hard work.
This was the message, conveyed today by Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and International Business, Donville Inniss, to private and public sector participants at the opening of the National Consultation on the Formulation of an Intellectual Property Strategy for Barbados at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, Two Mile Hill.
According to Mr. Inniss, “the draft aims to develop a national intellectual property crime prevention framework, with special emphasis on digital piracy and internet-based crimes.” He emphatically declared that “the cooperation of all stakeholders will definitely be needed to facilitate and execute public awareness programmes against infringement.”
Consultant for the Intellectual Property Strategy, Erica Smith, explained that the project sought to increase levels of innovation in various areas, such as “sports and sporting federations, crime protection and dispute resolution.”
Ms. Smith charged that the strategic plan had positive implications for the affordability of medicines and the stabilisation of its costs through the “patent and procurement of intellectual property rights as these apply to medicines”. The recommendations derived from participants in today’s conference will lead to the finalisation of this important strategic plan.