If you’ve been watching the advertisements on Television and on the
radio, you’ll realize that many Dancehall and Reggae artiste must be seriously
starving, as JAMCOPY (Jamaica Copyright
Licensing Agency), JACAP (Jamaica
Association of Composer, Artistes and Producers) and JAMMS (Jamaica Music Society) are making
sure to collect royalties for music played by Sound Systems.
However, Dancehall and Reggae Artiste not the only producers of original
content or IP (Intellectual Property). IP can be a source of Revenue for many
Jamaican Inventors and Local Design Engineers, not just persons involved in the
creative arts. Even Trade Names and Geographic Indicators have to be protected,
even when they’re not yet legal.
Marijuana (Cannabis Sativa) is
one of such “not yet legal” yet protected Product names. It was part of a
grab-bag of Trade Marks, Products and Geographical Indicators that were
recently protected by the GOJ in their signing of a BTA (Bilateral Trade
Agreement) with Switzerland to protect as detailed in my blog article entitled
“Jamaica
and Switzerland sign historic Bilateral Trade Agreement to protect Brand Names
and Geographical Indicators - Escape Plan for the eventual Decriminalization
and Legalization of Ganja”.
But what is IP exactly? Also, what rights do Jamaican inventors have
under Jamaican and International Law as it relates to protecting your IP from
exploitation by foreigners?
Protection of IP Rights – Copyrights,
Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Patents
IP refers to the Legal Framework of Rights that IP holders have from the
production or original work in the following fields:
1.
Scientific
2.
Industrial
3.
Literary
4.
Artistic
5.
Musical
6.
Theatre and Dramatic Arts
The laws exist for three (3) main reasons:
1.
Protection of the Moral and economic rights of a
creator or inventor or rights holder to IP
2.
Fair Trade within the State as well as with
foreign States
3.
Furthering the Development of the country in the
above mentioned fields
There are four (4) main forms that of Intellectual Property as mentioned
above can take that can be protected within Jamaican Law:
1.
Copyright under the Copyright Act of 1993
2.
Geographical Indications under the Jamaica Protection of
Geographical Indications Act of 2004
3.
Industrial Designs
4.
Layout –Designs or Topographies
5.
Patents under the Patent and Design Act of 1857 which
is currently under review to be updated as stated in the article “Senate Wants
Repeal Of Century-Old Patent Laws”, Published Monday March 19, 2012, by
Erica Virtue, The Jamaica Gleaner
6.
Trademarks under the Trademarks Act of 1999
7.
Traditional Knowledge and Cultural Expressions
Copyright Protection – IP
Holder’s Economic and Moral Rights and how to defend them
Copyright is the gives the owner of IP to exploit his/her work for
financial gain and prevent other from doing so without their permission. Under
the Copyright Act of 1993, Copyright applies to the following:
1.
Original Literary, dramatic, artistic works
2.
Sound recordings
3.
Films
4.
Broadcasts
5.
Cable Programming
6.
Typographical Arrangements of published editions
e.g. magazines, books
Copyright does not protect the following, unfortunately, as they’re not
that unique:
1.
Ideas
2.
Concepts
3.
Processes
4.
Principles
5.
Procedures
Copyright essential gives two (2) rights to the IP Works owner:
1.
Economic Rights – Right to make money and
benefit exclusively from their IP.
2.
Moral Right – The right to claim ownership and
be identified as the Creator (paternity) of an IP.
This also gives them the ability to defend their work against
misrepresentation as well as to protect themselves from being credited with
work that they did not do. Economic Rights under the Copyright Act of 1993 can
be given up at the permission of the Rights Holder of the IP but Moral Rights
are permanently those of the Creator.
Those IP that can be Copyrights are protected for the lifetime of the
author plus and additional fifty (50) years after the death, with Typographical
Arrangements of published editions lasting only twenty five (25) years after
their first date of Publications. Copyright doesn’t require registration;
simply make a copy of the IP works and place in a large envelope along with a
Letter declaring the following:
1.
Name of the IP
2.
Name of the Creator and co-creators
3.
Date of Creation
4.
The Words “Copyright ©” and the Date of creation
and the Authors name on the letter as well as on the IP Medium e.g. Copyright ©
November 12th 2013, Lindsworth Deer
5.
The symbol “(p)” to be used to indicate that the
IP Material is a Master Recording
Note: the original IP works
needs to be kept for safe keeping. The IP work you place in this envelope is
actually a copy!
Once everything is in order, seal the envelope and mail it to yourself
via Registered Mail, thereby identifying you as the sender. When the envelope
arrives, keep the envelope sealed and DO NOT OPEN it until the time it’s
required to be challenged in Copyright Tribunal Court, should that situation
arise. At this point it’ll be opened in the presence of a Supreme Court Judge
as proof of ownership of the Copyright © for the IP Works in dispute.
Trademarks and Service Marks –
JIPO’s Letters of Marque for Goods and Services
A Trademark is any sign that’s capable of being graphically represented
and indicates the Services that the IP Rights holder is undertaking, making
them distinctly identifiable and unmistakable from those of another IP Rights
holder or entity.
Here a Sign can include a word, personal name, Design, Letter, numeral,
colour combination of colours or a picture of your Goods or Services. This sign
must be distinct and unmistakable for any other and must be a unique Design in
itself.
Service Marks are also protected under the Trademarks Act of 1999 and
differ slightly from Trademarks in that they identify Services and not Goods.
Both Trademarks and Service Marks protect the IP rights of your Goods and Services
from being infringed by correctly identifying them as your property. This
protection lasts for ten (10) years and is renewable indefinitely for the life
of the IP.
In addition, the Trademarks Act of 1999 also protects:
1.
Collective marks, which are a Mark that
distinguishes food or Services as being members of an association e.g. the Trademarks
used by Hotel chains, Educational Institutions, Political Parties, Professional
Associations, etc.
2.
Certification Marks is a Mark that indicates
that Goods or Services belonging to the IP holder are certified in respect of
origin, material, quality, accuracy, method of manufacturing or other
characteristics e.g. UL (Underwriters Laboratories) Certification marks, HAACP
Certification marks and ISO 90001 Certification marks, BSJ (Bureau of Standards
Jamaica) Certification marks, etc.
To file for a Trademark, you have to go to JIPO and fill out a TM1 form specifying the Trademark.
You not only have to provide graphics to show what you Trademark look like but
also a list of the Goods and Services to which the Trademark applies. You may
also need to do a search of the JIPO IP
Journal to make sure that your Trademark is unique for which JIPO charges a fee of JA$1,100. An
application fee of JA$7800 is charged to register the Trademark and JA$2200 to
advertise the Mark in the JIPO IP
Journal.
Industrial Designs and Patents
– JIPO’s Shield for Inventors and Design Engineers
Finally something for the Jamaican Inventors and Local Design Engineers! Industrial
Designs are protected mainly by patents under the Patent and Design Act of 1857
and are defined as an ornamental or aesthetic features of a product that may be
3D i.e. shape or surface of the article or 2D i.e. patterns lines or colours. Industrial
Design applies to a wide variety of products:
1.
Technical Devices
2.
Medical Instruments
3.
Watches
4.
Jewellery
5.
Electronic Gadget Design
6.
Computer Design
7.
Electrical Appliances
8.
Vehicles Design
9.
Architectural Structures
10.
Textile Design
11.
Luxury items
Again, like Trademarks, Industrial Design have to be protected via an
application to JIPO. The IP Rights holder
has to supply the following information when visiting the JIPO Offices:
1.
Names and address the business and IP Rights
holders
2.
Class of Goods and Services to which the Design
is to be applied
3.
Nature of the Design
4.
Claims for the Uniqueness of the Design
5.
Three (3) sets of Drawings, photographs or
tracing that can uniquely identify the product prototype
6.
Application fee of JA$1500
Once you’ve submitted you Industrial Design, you can also apply for a
Patent for your Design. Once the research is done and JIPO is satisfied that
the product is unique and deserving of a patent, your given a Patent License
Certificate that legally enforceable in court. In addition, it gives you twenty
(20) years protection from Patent infringement and gives the IP Rights Holder
the power to stop Patent Infringement on your Industrial Design via the Court
System.
JIPO – The GOJ’s Guardian of
Intellectual Property Rights for Jamaicans
That’s right. Ever since the Jamaica Intellectual Property Act of 2001
came into force, JIPO (Jamaica
Intellectual Property Office) have been the GOJ (Government of Jamaica)
appointed guardians to protect us from foreign interests from infringing on our
Intellectual Property Rights!
Located at 18 Trafalgar Road in the same building as JAMPRO (Jamaica
Trade and Invest), JIPO has the
responsibility of protecting the above Intellectual Property assets in Jamaica.
It started out originally as a portfolio under the Ministry of Information and
Culture but eventually ended up under the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and
Technology.
When the Jamaica Intellectual Property Act of 2001 was minted in 2001, it
became a full-fledged statutory body in on Friday February 1st 2002
and now has its own building. For such an important function as IP Rights
protection, they’ve got the GOJ signed up with WIPO (World Intellectual
Property Organization) and WTO (World Trade Organization) to ensure the
protection of the various aspects of IP globally by other signatories to a very
long list of Treaties.
Under WIPO, we’ve signed the following Treaties:
1.
Berne Convention for Protection of Literary and
artistic Works
2.
Brussels Convention Relating to Satellite
signals
3.
Geneva Convention for the Protection of
Phonograms
4.
Nairobi Convention on the Olympic Symbol
5.
Nice Agreement concerning the International
Classification of Goods and Services
6.
Paris convention on the Protection of Industrial
Property
7.
Rome Convention for the Protection of
Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations
8.
Vienna Agreement on Figurative Elements of Marks
9.
WIPO Copyright Treaty
10.
WIPO Performance and Phonograms Treaty
Under WTO, we’ve signed the following Treaties:
1.
TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights)
CMO – JIPO’s Little Helpers for
Musicians, Artistes but not Inventors and Engineers
But JIPO isn’t alone in protecting
these various IP rights. They’ve got help from some very good CMA (Collective
Management Agencies) who are probably well known by know if you’ve seen their
commercials on TV.
If you’ve read my article on JAMCOPY (Jamaica Copyright Licensing Agency)
in my blog article entitled
“JAMCOPY
and MOE Copyright Infringement – UWI License to Kill in a Clash of the Titans”
you should know that CMA’s are basically associations that administer
and protect Copyright for a select group of Jamaican Dancehall and Reggae Artiste,
Inventors and Design Engineers.
There are three (3) active CMA’s registered in Jamaica for the protection
of various groups:
1.
JAMCOPY
(Jamaica Copyright Licensing Agency)
2.
JACAP
(Jamaica Association of Composer, Artistes and Producers)
3.
JAMMS
(Jamaica Music Society)
JAMCOPY is a non-profit
organization that manages the reproduction rights of Creators of Image and
Text-based works for:
1.
Writers
2.
Poets
3.
Journalists
4.
Playwrights
5.
Photographers
6.
Illustrators
7.
Visual Artists
JACAP is a non-profit
organization that manages the performing and reproduction rights of Musical
Works. They’re mainly concerned with protecting Musicians i.e. Dancehall and
Reggae artiste. JAMMS on the other hand, is a non-profit
organization that focuses on protecting the producers of Recorded Musical Works
i.e. owners of master Sound Recordings.
Once you’re a producer of any of the IP mentioned in the article, you
should endeavour to register with one of these organizations in order to ensure
that they are not only looking out for possible infringements of your IP but
that any royalties related to permission given to reproduce or use your IP are
being paid over as is currently the drive by JACAP.
Lindsworth Deer the Publisher –
JAMCOPY is my Guardian Angel
As a blogger for “My Thoughts on
Technology and Jamaica”, “Jamaican
Downloads” and my articles
on the Geezam blog, I’d have to be registered under JAMCOPY to be protected
from persons violating my Copyrights to my published works on my blog.
I’m also planning to do an e-book later and eventually a distributor of
books using the tips from my blog article entitled “Crowdsourced, Teleworking
Flex-work Publishers needed for UWI and High School Students with Tablets in
2014 - How Jamaican Writers can make money via ePub Publishing Books” and “How to become an e-book
Publishing House via e-book Piracy - Tablets in Schools sets the Stage for
Rampant e-book Piracy”. So JAMCOPY is important as it’ll
prevent people from not only copying my literary works but also using any ideas
or suggestions posted on my blog.
So if you’re
interested to learn more about the JIPO, here’s the links to find
out more about their services:
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