*Representatives from CIIPO (the Cayman Islands Intellectual Property Office) were scheduled to be at Camana Bay on Wednesday, 26 April, from noon until 7pm for World Intellectual Property Day – and this year, Cayman has very strong reasons to celebrate it.*

‘Three updated laws – trade marks, patents, and design rights – will be enacted very soon, and our new copyrights law was enacted last year. Taken together, Cayman’s creatives – our musicians, inventors, cooks, designers, and persons in so many other fields – stand to benefit greatly from our suite of updated intellectual property (IP) laws’, said Minister of Commerce Wayne Panton.

‘But besides this, our new laws will allow consumers more choice in the marketplace, as more global brands will have confidence to offer their goods in Cayman, now that their IP rights are robustly protected. And of course, there’s the potential for job creation, because when persons locally and globally know their creative works are protected, it stimulates the economy’, he said.

CIIPO’s Donnell Dixon said that World IP Day, established by the World Intellectual Property Organisation in 2000, annually highlights the importance of original creative works in stimulating
innovation and creativity.

Throughout this Wednesday at Camana Bay, CIIPO answered the public’s questions about IP, and there will be prize giveaways.

‘Every time we’ve had a public event like this – from business expos and the Agriculture Show on Cayman Brac, to the International Trade mark Association Annual Meeting, which is the world’s biggest IP conference – there’s been overwhelming interest in Cayman’s new IP laws’, Mr Dixon said.
Government created CIIPO in May 2016 to register IP, including trade marks, which need to be recorded as part of its legal protection. CIIPO also provides information locally and globally about the full range of IP protection in Cayman.

For more information, visit www.ciipo.gov.ky or email [email protected].

END

IMAGE: World IP Day logo

* Due to unforeseen circumstances, today’s event was shifted to the lobby of the Government Administration Building and ran only until 5pm only.