The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

ATTORNEY General Allyson Maynard-Gibson yesterday said the Bahamas’ trademark registry will be fully World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) certified by year’s-end, adding that move would be a “tremendous advancement” for this country’s intellectual property rights regime.

Addressing the first ever e-government and business forum, Mrs Maynard-Gibson said that while the move was significant, the Government was not going to “sit on our hands”.

It has engaged a consultant to ensure that the entire Registrar General’s Department is WIPO certified, and Mrs Maynard-Gibson said: “The registry is in the process of becoming a World Intellectual Property Organisation-certified registry.

“WIPO is the yard stick with which solid registries are measured these days. That’s very, very significant. There is a very significant practice in intellectual property. There is a lot of concern about the inability to ensure that your trademark or copyright has, in fact, been registered.

“There is a very significant backlog. When we say we have a WIPO-certified register, that makes a huge difference in terms credibility.”

Mrs Maynard-Gibson said a WIPO consultant had been engaged to help with the move towards certification, and added that the Government was moving to ensure company incorporations could be performed on-line by June 2013.

“We have started a project so that, by June of this year, you would be able to conduct the entire process from name registration to incorporation and printing up your certificate of incorporation entirely on-line,” Mrs Maynard-Gibson said.

The Registrar General’s Department was also working to achieve a goal where deeds and documents were received, scanned, indexed and returned within 30 days.

“We had a situation here documents where being received, recorded, scanned, indexed and returned within 30 days,” Mrs Maynard-Gibson said.

“For political reasons that was all cancelled, and because it was done before, we know it can be done again. The team has committed to reinstating the process, but this time even more effectively, and have that done in 30 days.

“Could you imagine, buying a piece of land, it was taking three years before we got it down to 30 days. It’s now over 30 days.”