Adrian Frater, News editor

Western Bureau:

In a bid to draw attention to the wealth-creating potential of intellectual property (IP), the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office (JIPO) has decided to stage a series of seminars to enlighten the local business community on how to access this wealth.

The initiative, which has been sanctioned by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), was launched, last week, with two successful seminars hosted by the Negril and Ocho Rios chambers of commerce, on Thursday and Friday, respectively.

"Intellectual property is a 'power tool' for economic development and wealth creation, but local businesses need to know how to utilise it," said attorney-at-law, Lonnette Fisher-Lynch, JIPO's manager for copyright and related rights.

"It is really a way of using intangible assets such as knowledge, information, creativity and inventiveness to strengthen your business and create wealth," she added.

The seminars, which feature the input of both local and overseas experts, covered areas such as copyright and related rights, marketing and branding through the use of trademarks and industrial designs, the protection of inventions, leveraging IP assets and improving enterprise profitability.

Contributing experts

The contributing experts included Belgium national, Lien Verbauwhede-Koglin, a consultant for WIPO Small Business Division; Colin Porter, manager of technical services at the Jamaica Business Development Centre; Hawthorne Watson, manager of the Information Services Division of the Scientific Research Council; and, Loreen Walker, legal council for the Coffee Industry Board.

"For one's business to be successful, it must first get noticed and then be remembered long enough to persuasively communicate its uniqueselling potential as a product or service," said Mrs. Verbauwhede-Koglin, in explaining branding and marketing. "That is how you make potential customers into actual one."

In looking at the value of inventions, such as the biodigester septic tank, a local invention that is steadily replacing soak-away sewage pits, Mr. Hawthorne said the success of such an invention is due to the fact that it was patented, which allows its inventors to benefit commercially.

"It has the potential to both generate vast sums of money and save vast sums as well," said Mr. Hawthorne. "It is environmentally friendly, it prevents pollution of the underground water supply, it reduces sewage-related costs, generates water for irrigation, and it has the potential to produce biogas."

Open praise for JIPO

At the end of the Negril seminar, business leaders openly praised JIPO for the initiative and suggested that similar seminars be held at least twice per year so as to ensure that the entire business community is sensitised.

"We would be happy to do this as often as possibility, but JIPO does not have the required funding to do it," said JIPO official, attorney-at-law Edward Brightly. "We would gladly partner with organisations such as the various chambers of commerce to do it on a regular basis."

In a WIPO study tracking the growing strength of intangible IP assets, it shows that in 1982, 62 per cent of The United States corporate assets were physical assets, but by 2000, it had shrunk to a mere 30 per cent, owing to the impact of the intangible assets created through IP.

'For one's business to be successful, it must first get noticed and then be remembered long enough to persuasively communicate its unique selling potential as a product or service.'