The Tribune

By FAY SIMMONS

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

The Attorney General yesterday said regulations to accompany and enforce The Bahamas’ intellectual property rights reforms will be issued next week.

Speaking at the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) Bahamas conference, Ryan Pinder KC said a digital intellectual property (IP) registry will be formed once the regulations have been published.

“We’re launching our new intellectual property registry for all those who have IP concerns. That’ll be a separate registry. We put the legislation in force, the regulations probably will be issued next week on the new legislation, and we’ll have a digitised platform,” said Mr Pinder. He explained there will now be three registrars to deal separately with records, companies and intellectual property.

The registrar of records will hold personal information and deeds, such as birth and marriage records, which all also be available digitally through the civil registry operational system (CROS), which will be launched for trials next month.

“We will now have three registrars, one for records, one for companies, one for intellectual property. With the registrar of records, that’s deeds and documents, births, deaths, marriages. And we have developed a platform called CROS, civil registry operational system, and that will be a digital platform for your deeds and documents for your marriages, records your death, records your birth,” said Mr Pinder.

“We’ve now got a movable asset collateral registry, so inventory and machinery, whatever you have is a movable asset, now we have a security interest put on and have a loan. We’ll be launching CROS on a deeds and documents trial basis next month. It’s very good”

Mr Pinder said the digitisation of public records is a “fantastic evolution” to the Registrar Genreral’s Department, and added that once the platform is fully launched users will be able to submit affidavits and property transactions digitally.

“When you go and, for example, you do a property transaction, or you have an affidavit you want to file, or you have a mortgage you need to record, you can do all of that now digitally on a digital platform without having to go into the Registrar General’s Department and fill out the information,” said Mr Pinder.

“Just upload the document, submit it into the platform. We verify the information as accurate, and just like that, boom, you pay your fee. We now have a registered document digitally, electronically, instantaneously. That’s launching as part of the record side as well, hopefully on a limited basis in April”

Mr Pinder said that while there are some issues uploading all historical data, as it must be correct, once the platform is launched it will populate new data and streamline the record-keeping process.