A national strategy for intellectual property will be developped next year and the education campaign will be enhanced to bring information about it closer to the business sector and the population.
These were two main points that came out of the National Intellectual Property committee’s final meeting for the year, which took place yesterday morning at the trade department office at Maison l’Esplanade.
Speaking to the media, principal secretary for trade, Francis Lebon, said the purpose of the meeting was to review the actions taken by the National Intellectual Property committee this year and see how they could improve their work in 2023.
Mr Lebon said among the issues discussed was the need to have a national strategy for intellectual property (IP); a document that would give their work a clear direction.
“It would be an important tool which can synchronise all our actions, for example our IP law which is under review and is expected to be completed during the third quarter of 2023 and any other IP-related work, to make IP more visible, and let the population know the benefits of registering their IP,” said PS Lebon.
PS Lebon added that the committee has also agreed to beef up its educational campaign in 2023 “to bring information about IP closer to the business sector and the population, because it is a right”.
Having a more inclusive approach and the importance of enforcement were also highlighted.
“We have made a commitment that as of next year, we will engage more as a committee, so that we can do more education and more enforcement, as well as take a more inclusive approach to improve on what we are doing,” he added.
The National Intellectual Property Committee is chaired by the registrar general of the registration division, Wendy Pierre, who said that despite not being too popular, there has been a growing interest in IP, with more people coming forward to register theirs.
She said one of those being registered is trademark; an intellectual property which consists of a recognisable sign, design or expression, that identifies products and services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others.
According to Mrs Pierre, in 2022, 34 residents registered their trademarks compared to 22 for last year and this doubled for non-residents from 343 in 2021 to 607 in 2022.
For copyright, which protects original works of authorship, the number stands at 46 registered this year compared to 33 and 48 in 2020 and 2021 respectively.
As for patents, which is an exclusive right granted for an invention, no residents registered a patent this year. However, between 2020 and 2021 there were three.
“During our meeting, one reason given for this low number was that we do not have people specialising in drafting patent applications here, as it is very technical and it was pointed out that there should be some specific training to do this,” said Mrs Pierre.
She noted that the committee suggested that this could be addressed by providing specific training to local lawyers on how to draft such documents.
Mrs Pierre said another reason preventing people from registering their IP was their inability to compile information, as per the legal requirements.
However, she advised them to overcome these hurdles as it was the only sure way of protecting their work.
“If you are not registered, it is difficult to identify your work, so you cannot claim it is yours. So, registering your IP, is a form of protection, and then you can enforce your right,” said Mrs Pierre.
The registrar general also pointed out that Seychelles will have a modern IP law next year once the current Intellectual Property Act of 2014 is reviewed and has reassured the public that lapses such as lack of enforcement will be remedied.
Mrs Pierre said although the law exists, enforcement remains a huge challenge to their IP framework. She pointed out that this was further hampered by a lack of coordination by intergovernmental agencies which did not understand their role or did not have a collective work approach.
“The police were present in today’s meeting, which was a good thing because if we have counterfeit goods, they should be the ones stepping in as soon as they hit our shores. Most of the time this is not happening, as there is a lack of coordination between these different institutions, which allow people to continue to steal other people’s work,” she explained.
Meanwhile, the trade department said it was working with two jurisdictions, namely Singapore and South Africa, to see how they could help with Seychelles’ capacity-building, with regard to IP.
Yesterday’s meeting was the 18th since 2017.
Source: Seychelles Nation
