The Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs’ Intellectual Property Office hosted a World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Workshop on Copyright for Caribbean Heads of Intellectual Property on Monday January 28, 2019 – Tuesday January 29, 2019.
At the opening ceremony, the Honourable Faris Al-Rawi, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs welcomed the attendees and expressed Trinidad and Tobago’s continued commitment to “stand as a coordinated partner with our brother and sister jurisdictions.” Deputy Director General, Copyright and Creative Industries Sector, WIPO, Ms. Sylvie Forbin echoed the Attorney General’s view on the importance and operationalization of Intellectual Property (IP) throughout the Caribbean region.
Senator Anthony Vieira, provided the attendees with an overview of the four WIPO Copyright Treaties, namely the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT), the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT), the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled and the Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances.
Another speaker, Ms. Sonia Cruickshank, Program Officer, Copyright Development Division, WIPO, Geneva, explored the benefits of a voluntary registration and national depository system for published works. Ms. Cruickshank explained that this system, allows for the maintenance of heritage and culture and the establishment of a record of works for storage and retrieval purposes, among other benefits.
Entertainment Attorney and Music Business Consultant, Mr. Lloyd Stanbury who is based in Royal Palm Beach, Florida, discussed the digital trends impacting the distribution of cultural content and the impact of technology on copyright enforcement.
Via video conferencing Mr. Benoit Muller, Director, Copyright Management Division, WIPO, Geneva provided the attendees with ideas and recommendations for a strategic (regional) approach to collective copyright and related rights management.
The Copyright and Creative Industries Sector is heavily involved in progressing copyright infrastructure and building capacity in developing countries. This will promote use of the copyright system to extract greater economic value from their cultural and economic works. In this regard, the objectives of the meeting were achieved as the attendees, in collaboration with the various speakers, addressed copyright issues in the region and derived actions and recommendations for moving copyright forward.