Intellectual Property Week is an opportunity for reflection and to ensure that all Jamaicans work together to create, own, and exploit works of creativity, research results, new technologies, and innovations.
With the incentive provided by intellectual property rights, technologies and creations that have touched and changed millions of lives would probably not exist today. Copyright, for example, has stimulated the development of vibrant local cultures, and encouraged their dissemination worldwide. Witness, for example, the international popularity of reggae, whose growth, distribution and commercial success has been encouraged to a large extent by the copyright system.
Whilst we have had success in some areas, however, there is still enormous potential for the development and use of intellectual property rights such as patents, trade marks and copyright in Jamaica.
Everyone has a stake in protecting intellectual property rights – the creator has a right to reap the financial benefits of his inventions; consumers deserve to know that the product they are buying is genuine, and companies need stability in their operations in order to justify their investments.
We must ensure that our people benefit from their innovations and creative work, and prevent others from copying or unfairly gaining from our creativity and investment. I urge all Jamaicans, therefore, to utilize the services being offered by JIPO, which is charged with the objective of the proper protection, administration and enforcement of IPRs.
The government intends to derive the full potential of the intellectual property system as a tool for growth and progress, and welcome the occasion of Intellectual Property Week to recommit ourselves to that process.