Dr. Beverly Morgan, head of the Competitiveness Company, speaking with director general of the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery, Ambassador Richard Bernal, about the new collective and certification marks developed by the Jamaica Exporters' Association, at the launch of the seals at Alhambra Inn, St. Andrew, on Monday, December 3. - Photos by Norman Grindley/Deputy Chief Photographer

The Competitiveness Company, a unit of the Jamaica Exporters' Association (JEA), has created four property rights marks for authentic commercial products that will brand them Jamaican on retail shelves worldwide while offering protection against piracy and counterfeit products.

The $10 million project, which was 75 per cent grant financed under the Private Sector Development Programme (PSDP), offers four types of 'collective marks' for visual arts, wearable art, agribusiness and fresh produce, as well as a sovereign brand.

The marks, which were designed by the Creative Unit Limited, are being pilot tested on canned ackees, jerk seasoning and sauces, honey, and scotch bonnet pepper products of small and medium companies.

"The aim is not simply to register these marks, but a desire to increase the prosperity of the SMEs," said Dr. Beverly Morgan, head of the Competitiveness Company, a two-year-old company set up by the JEA in 2005 as an in-house centre of expertise on which both private and public sectors could draw.

The visual arts seal was included because of widespread illegal reproduction of works in that area.

Earning potential

Trade negotiator Ambassador Richard Bernal, who noted its inclusion, said a Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM)-commissioned study had identified the sector as an area with strong export and earning potential for regional businesses.

That study had looked broadly at the prospects for the creative industries.

Bernal, the director general of the CRNM and guest speaker at the launch of the certification marks at Alhambra Inn, on Monday, said the marks represent the uniqueness and authenticity of Jamaican products, and that their creation was an important step in trade development.

Dianne Daley, intellectual property partner at the law firm Foga, Daley and Company, attorneys for the Competitiveness Company, said collective and certification marks were likely to be of "great commercial importance to Jamaican producers, as many consumers rely on trademarks to make their purchasing decision."

The seals are available for a fee to JEA members only, who must satisfy the Competitiveness Company that their products qualify to wear the marks.

Application process

Morgan said the company was still fine-tuning the application process using a team of legal, financial and public relations professionals, including the cost of subscription.

The monitoring of the mark and the products that bear the seals, she said, will be done with the assistance of state agencies, the Bureau of Standards and the Jamaica Intellectual Property Rights Organisation, the agency that registers trademarks and patents and polices intellectual property rights.

The marks will be owned by the JEA. Other seals will eventually be developed for additional products and services, Morgan said.

sabrina.gordon@gleanerjm.com

Tinned ackee for export, one of the products that bears the certification mark developed by the JEA for its members.