WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY DAY

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Now, a station that's giving you back the power to speak your mind. The all new talk radio Freedom 106.5. [00:00:08] Speaker B: Before we get into another one of. [00:00:10] Speaker C: Our discussions, we welcome to our program. [00:00:13] Speaker B: Two individuals who they'll be telling us. [00:00:15] Speaker C: A lot more about intellectual property. World Intellectual Property Day. [00:00:21] Speaker B: Let's welcome to our show patent examiner. [00:00:24] Speaker C: Head of IP youth education initiatives at the Trinidad and Tobago intellectual Property Office. [00:00:31] Speaker B: That's Nicholas Gaya Posad. [00:00:33] Speaker C: Good morning to you. [00:00:35] Speaker B: Welcome to our program. [00:00:36] Speaker D: Good morning Mister Mohabia, and thank you so much for having us on your program. And good morning Trinidad and Tobigo. [00:00:42] Speaker B: It's nice to have you with us. I think this is a topic that's. [00:00:44] Speaker C: Going to be very interesting. Definitely. And we also have with us technical examiner, intellectual property office, innovation committee at. [00:00:55] Speaker B: The Intellectual Property office. Miss Bishop, I am not going to even try to attempt your name because I don't want to butcher it. Please tell us the proper pronunciation of your name. [00:01:07] Speaker E: Hi, good morning, Mister Mahavir. Thank you for having us. And good morning to the freedom 106.5 listeners. [00:01:15] Speaker F: I am Falashaday bishop. [00:01:16] Speaker E: That is f o l a s a d e. Palasha day bishop. [00:01:22] Speaker C: Yeah, it was such an interesting name. [00:01:23] Speaker B: That I pondered it for a long. [00:01:25] Speaker C: Time and I sat here, look, since. [00:01:26] Speaker B: Morning, I'm looking at it and I. [00:01:28] Speaker C: Try and say, how do I pronounce this thing? [00:01:30] Speaker B: And you know what, let me, let. [00:01:31] Speaker C: Me earn the side of caution. [00:01:33] Speaker B: It's nice to have you with us here this morning. You have a. [00:01:35] Speaker C: You have a beautiful name. [00:01:36] Speaker B: You really do. This morning, both of you. [00:01:39] Speaker C: You're here to speak to us about. [00:01:40] Speaker B: World Intellectual Property day. [00:01:42] Speaker C: Yes, but I'd like to get much. [00:01:44] Speaker B: More out of the interview because I think my listeners as well, would like. [00:01:48] Speaker C: To be more informed about this thing called intellectual property. [00:01:53] Speaker B: I personally do not think that as. [00:01:55] Speaker C: A nation, we understand it enough. [00:01:59] Speaker B: And there are many issues, legal issues, when it comes to intellectual property, that. [00:02:04] Speaker C: People should know of. Probably people need to know what constitutes intellectual property in the first place so. [00:02:11] Speaker B: That we can start our discussion there. Either one of you, I'm not too sure which one would want to take this. [00:02:17] Speaker C: What is intellectual property? [00:02:20] Speaker E: Okay, so I'll answer that for you. Intellectual property refers to the express creations of the human mind. So creations which include inventions, literary and artistic works, designs, symbols, names, and even images used in commerce. IP surrounds us in everyday life from the radio stations and broadcasting networks we subscribe to in the studio, for instance, the equipment, even your radio station, Freedom 106.5 and your radio programs, morning rumble daily. We interact with products stemming from someone's research and development or someone's innovative ideas. From the brands that we endorse and support, to the technical devices that help make our lives easier, to the movies, videos, apps and music and other forms of entertainment are all examples of intellectual property. [00:03:22] Speaker F: It is important for me to note. [00:03:25] Speaker E: That there are legal rights that help to protect our intellectual property. These intellectual property rights such as patterns, copyright, trademarks and industrial designs. A few examples of rights obtained and utilized by individuals and businesses or collective bodies to safeguard their intellectual creations. IP rights grant the right owners the authority to use their creations for a designated period and to prevent or bar the unauthorized use or sale of these expressed ideas. Having legal rights to intellectual property allows creators and innovators to benefit financially from their work, which encourages further innovation and creativity. [00:04:13] Speaker B: Yeah, in this modern day of technology. [00:04:16] Speaker C: These issues are more pronounced because you have quote unquote content creators. [00:04:22] Speaker B: Everybody is a content creator now. [00:04:24] Speaker C: And all of these things and brand is very important when it comes to content creation. I was looking recently at someone who's. [00:04:32] Speaker B: Probably one of the most successful content. [00:04:34] Speaker C: Creators, that's Mister beast. [00:04:37] Speaker B: And I stumbled upon some of his. [00:04:39] Speaker C: Videos and he was actually preparing at that point in time to welcome his 250 million subscriber. That's a phenomenal feat for anyone. [00:04:52] Speaker B: And his videos gets hundreds of millions of views and he making real money and that kind of thing. And I'm assuming it's because he, many people think that it's simple, he just. [00:05:01] Speaker C: Buy a camera and start to shoot. [00:05:02] Speaker B: And that's the end of that. [00:05:04] Speaker C: But, but he has a whole team, it's a business. And he understands it very well that. [00:05:08] Speaker B: When you get to a certain stage, apart from earning from the videos, you. [00:05:12] Speaker C: Have deals that come along and all these things, and controlling your intellectual property is a big deal, is a big part of that. We have persons here at home who. [00:05:22] Speaker B: Engage in all kinds of things. And from looking at the vigils, I. [00:05:26] Speaker C: Can tell that they don't understand how. [00:05:28] Speaker B: Badly they are going about this thing. [00:05:31] Speaker C: If persons want to learn more about intellectual property and how it works and so on, do we have the facilities here at home to guide people and educate them? [00:05:46] Speaker D: I will, I will take this question. Yes, we do. We do have a program or education program, I would say that inform about intellectual property. For example, we have the, apart from the Trinidad Intellectual Property Office, we also have the National Intellectual Property Training center, right. This was established in the year 2022. And what it does is it allows office to provide education, information services in a, in a very formalized way. [00:06:31] Speaker C: Okay. When it comes to our keeping up with the rest of the world, I don't know if I should say that, or I'm probably keeping abreast ourselves when it comes to intellectual property and registering so that your intellectual property is safeguarded and so on. How are we doing as a nation? [00:06:49] Speaker B: Do we have data on percentages of. [00:06:52] Speaker C: People or how many people have registered. [00:06:53] Speaker B: Intellectual property, how much more need to do so and that kind of thing. [00:06:56] Speaker C: Do we have those statistics available. [00:07:00] Speaker D: In terms of statistics? Well, okay. So we would receive applications at the office from both foreign applicants as well as local applicants. So, yes, we do have data on the amount of local persons that are utilizing the intellectual property system. We also have data on the amount of foreign businesses, persons that are utilizing the intellectual property system. As a matter of fact, for trademarks, if you want to see a list of marks that have trademarks that have been granted in Trinidad and to be, you could actually visit our website, www. Dot IpO dot de, and you would be able to utilize our trademark search, see what is being registered. Also, every Wednesday, actually, on our website and on our social media platforms, we would usually publish everything that is being granted. So you could actually see, Mark, trademarks that have been granted recently, you would have also see, well, sorry, I want to grant marks that are being published. That's another thing. And you'll also see patterns that are being granted and in some cases, industrial designs that are being granted as well. [00:08:23] Speaker C: Well, I know that there are complexities. [00:08:25] Speaker B: That when you drill down into the legalities of your property, intellectual property rights. [00:08:31] Speaker C: And what people can and cannot do with them, that is definitely something we need more education about. [00:08:36] Speaker B: And social media, as I said, has exploded the thing to the point where people are doing all kinds of things. [00:08:42] Speaker C: On social media get themselves in problems sometimes because they're using content that. That they really shouldn't be using. [00:08:50] Speaker B: One of the discussions, and I don't know if I can get your comments on one of the discussions that we. [00:08:54] Speaker C: Have here at home that I know. [00:08:56] Speaker B: Has been raging for a long period. [00:08:57] Speaker C: Of time, is artists taking elements of other songs and singing them over. And that has been a raging discussion. [00:09:08] Speaker B: About whether or not what these people. [00:09:10] Speaker C: Are doing is right or wrong or illegal, or should be discouraged or it's okay. From the intellectual property officer's position, are there loopholes that people use when singing over people's songs, or are there requirements that you have to meet things you need to do? And all this kind of thing. [00:09:31] Speaker D: So at the risk of losing the message of today, what I will say is this is probably a discussion for another date, because this goes into, this goes into so many different, I should say. But the underlying thing is what Falashadi was when you have an intellectual property right, you have the authority to exploit that right. If someone wants to utilize something that you have protected, they need to seek permission from you in order to do so. So I'm going to leave it out there for now. But in terms of going into singing about prison songs and stuff like that, I think would be a better discussion for another day because it's, it's so in depth. So it would take a while to explain that properly. [00:10:23] Speaker B: Yeah. And, but it is something that I'm assuming we need to explain one way or the other. [00:10:27] Speaker C: So probably that's a part two of our discussion here. There's another thing. [00:10:30] Speaker B: I know that when it comes to social media, there's an earning potential that's. [00:10:35] Speaker C: Huge on the various platforms, and people. [00:10:37] Speaker B: Use them, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and all these kinds of things. [00:10:41] Speaker C: People making huge sums of money by creating content and then having it uploaded and viewed, how many of at times or whatever else. There's also the element of people sharing people's intellectual property. It seems to be commonplace that intellectual property placed on social media web platforms can be shared without consequences. I noticed that, well, not notice, but I've seen for quite some time that there's a new, let me just say new, but there's a development that has happened where people are now rebroadcasting the content created by others and commenting on the video. And that is said to be a safeguard against breach of intellectual property rights. [00:11:30] Speaker B: So let's anybody makes a video and. [00:11:34] Speaker C: The video is getting immense responses. [00:11:39] Speaker B: I take the video, I post it. [00:11:40] Speaker C: On my channel, and I comment on the video. [00:11:43] Speaker B: And that is somehow the other safeguarding. [00:11:45] Speaker C: Me against intellectual property theft or breach of intellectual property rights. Am I right to infer that? [00:11:52] Speaker B: Or is that something that we should be guarded against? [00:11:54] Speaker C: What's going on with that? [00:11:59] Speaker D: So rebroadcast. Well, I wouldn't say rebroadcasting, I would say sharing person's videos and commenting on it. Now, we have to understand that each app or each platform, digital platform that content is being created on, they are all, or they all have intellectual property clauses embedded in them in terms of what constitutes an infringement, what is allowable, what is not allowable. For example, there are a lot of persons on YouTube I would see that would, I guess, react to other person's videos and make a video out of them, reacting in terms of music and stuff like that. And there are many cases where some of these videos would probably stay on that channel for like a few hours until it's taken down by YouTube or by the original uploader. So this brings me to another point where when you are enforcing your intellectual property rights, enforcement of the intellectual property right comes down to the owner of the intellectual property right, whether they want to pursue taking down something or not. In a lot of cases, intellectual property is a business. It's a business tool. If someone is report, if someone is sharing and commenting on my video and it's harming me, I might want to take it on. If it's helping me, I might want to keep it. But at the end of the day, it's the decision of the original uploader or the original content creator or the owner of the intellectual property right to make that final decision at the end of the day. [00:13:30] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay. [00:13:32] Speaker C: That's understandable. To each their own here at home, what are the more prominent fields that seek intellectual property protection? [00:13:44] Speaker D: Charlie, you want to take this question? [00:13:46] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:13:47] Speaker F: Business owners, companies, large conglomerates, they seek intellectual property rights. Pharmaceutical companies. Intellectual property is in everything. So in all areas, all aspects, all fields, people tend to file for protection appropriately, be it patterns or trademarks, industrial designs to protect their creations. [00:14:19] Speaker C: So let's just say, let's create a scenario. I file for intellectual property rights. [00:14:26] Speaker B: I'm granted it, and I have my protections under the law and the act. [00:14:30] Speaker C: And whatever else that exists. Somebody breaches my rights and I feel aggrieved enough that I want to take action. How does that process play itself out? [00:14:43] Speaker F: Okay, so you're the enforcer of the intellectual property, of your intellectual property, right. So under the law, you could bring actions against the person, cease and desist. You know, you could have mediation to stop the infringement. And, well, if that doesn't work, you take it further to bring an action to the courts of the courts of law. [00:15:10] Speaker B: Have we had those, have we had any instances that have set precedent or. [00:15:15] Speaker C: Worth mentioning without going into the nitty gritty gritty detail, but have those taken place? [00:15:21] Speaker F: Yes, I give one example with any music industry, there were two music producers that they believed their copyright, their rights were infringed, and they took the matter to court. [00:15:42] Speaker C: Okay, so let's speak a bit now about World Intellectual Property day and tell us about when is it and what. [00:15:51] Speaker B: Are some of the objectives. [00:15:52] Speaker C: Is there a theme and so on? [00:15:56] Speaker D: Certainly. So on the 26 April every year. So next week, Friday, the Trinidad Tobago Intellectual Property Office usually would join with the World Intellectual Property Organization and other intellectual property offices worldwide in celebrating World IP Day. On this day we would celebrate and we would learn about the role that intellectual property rights play in encouraging innovation and creativity. Usually the celebrations are centered around a theme. So for example, in 2021, we would have celebrated intellectual property and SME's. It was all about taking your ideas to market. In 2022, we celebrated intellectual property and youth and it was focused about the youth innovating for a better future. Last year we celebrated women and intellectual property. It was all about accelerating innovation and creativity amongst women. And this year we are talking about intellectual property and the sustainable development goals, or the sdgs. [00:17:11] Speaker C: So for persons who would want to be more involved and get more information and so on, how do they do that? [00:17:20] Speaker D: So to get more information, you could pay attention to our website, www dot IPO, dot gov dot tt. You could also pay attention to our social media pages. We are on Facebook and on Instagram dago. And you would. By following these pages you can see everything that we are doing in terms of events that are coming up. You would also get more information on intellectual property rights in itself. You would also learn, you also learn about how to make applications or to apply for these intellectual property rights as well. [00:17:59] Speaker B: So let me allow you all to. [00:18:02] Speaker C: Give some advice to the people listening in to us as to who should be concerned, or let me use the word concerned, who should be interested in getting more information. Because you may have a lot of people who have intellectual property that they're. [00:18:17] Speaker B: Creating and they just don't know because they are accustomed doing things a certain way. They don't necessarily think that, well, this. [00:18:24] Speaker C: Is something that I should protect because. [00:18:26] Speaker B: It'S going to be valuable to me. And if other people use it, they could be stealing profits or income or whatever that I could be earning. [00:18:35] Speaker C: So who should be interested in learning. [00:18:38] Speaker B: More about intellectual property? [00:18:44] Speaker D: I would say anyone and everyone that has an innovative idea that they would have created something from it. They are more than welcome to explore intellectual property further. I would actually want to go a little bit deeper into the sustainable development goals at this point. I'm not sure how familiar everyone are with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, but there are 17 sdgs. And these 17 sdgs form a universal call to action to end poverty and protect the planet and ensure peace and prosperity. So they are all interconnected. They address various social and economic and environmental changes. One of them in particular is SDG number seven, which is called affordable and clean energy. This ensures access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. And, you know, we are an energy oriented country. Intellectual property rights enable innovators to create and disseminate innovation. Innovative energy technologies such as off grid solar systems, mini grids, and energy efficient appliances. And these things are often to improve energy access, enhance livelihoods, and contribute to poverty alleviation efforts. Now, I say that to say this, to answer your initial question, who can explore intellectual property? Have you ever seen the movie the boy who harnessed the wind? [00:20:26] Speaker B: No, I haven't. [00:20:28] Speaker D: It was a movie where I can't remember the village, but it was a village that was poverty stricken and they were experiencing, experiencing droughts and stuff like that. And one boy had access to a library, or he had access to specific parts of the library where he got, he gained information on how to create his own wind powered engine. And in that he was able to bring energy to his village and also create a set of like a pump system so that they could have grown vegetables and stuff like that. So it doesn't matter who you are, once you have an innovative idea and you want to bring that into reality, you can more than do. So we've had persons utilizing the intellectual property system who are construction workers. For example, we have Mister Sean Moore, who is going to be celebrated in our hall of fame. That's coming up. And we have persons who registered unique designs on complete blocks. So from construction to technology and everything in between, once you have that innovative idea and you have created something from that idea, you can apply for intellectual property rights. [00:21:44] Speaker B: Yes, I think I've seen bits and pieces of that movie talking about with. [00:21:49] Speaker C: A young boy in an agricultural field. [00:21:51] Speaker B: And I think I saw those on social media. I think it's the same thing you're talking about. [00:21:55] Speaker C: Let's see if you have one or two calls. [00:21:57] Speaker B: Hello. Good, good morning. [00:21:59] Speaker G: Good morning, satish and good morning to you guys. I just wanted some information. Let's say you have just an idea, right. And you don't know how to go about, let me say, for an app, right. And does, does your, does your organization give advice? Can they give advice? Can they help with the development of the, of the app? Or is it just on a legal basis you deal with intellectual property. Right. [00:22:39] Speaker D: Thank you. Cola. So we do not help with the creation of the app. We are more about the protection of the innovative elements. So we can provide, or we do consultation services. If you call and you want more advice on how to strategically protect what you have created, we can offer that. We also have something called the WIPO IP Diagnostic Tool, which is on our website. It's a free to use tool and it's basically a questionnaire. You fill out this questionnaire and the questionnaire provides you with a report based on what you have created, the specific intellectual property components that are embedded in it, and which intellectual property rights you could, you could pursue. [00:23:32] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's, that that's valuable information because there, as I said, there. [00:23:37] Speaker C: Might be people who have things that. [00:23:39] Speaker B: Can be covered under intellectual property laws and regulations and guidelines, and they just simply don't know. They are not aware that this is something that I should be looking into. [00:23:50] Speaker C: And having the more information is valuable. Definitely. [00:23:54] Speaker B: So we're coming close to the end of our interview here. [00:23:58] Speaker C: Let me allow you to tell us to repeat, if you've said it before. [00:24:01] Speaker B: Some of the things that are going. [00:24:02] Speaker C: To take place as World Intellectual Property Day is observed this time around. [00:24:09] Speaker F: Okay, so we have some events coming up this week. Tomorrow and Friday we have a brainstorming session on the development of a strategy for managing intellectual property assets for Trinidad and Tobago's Carnival Museum. This strategy seeks to develop a set of IP best practices practitioners to protect, preserve and leverage the culture and art forms of Trinidad and Tobago for the long term educational and commercial sustainability of. [00:24:43] Speaker E: The country's cultural heritage. [00:24:46] Speaker F: And this relates to SDG four and SDG eleven. Also next Tuesday the 23rd, we have a webinar on intellectual property and the sdgs. In this webinar we will go even further into just how important IP and intellectual property rights are to achieving the sustainable development goals. And on the 25th and 26th, officially. [00:25:15] Speaker E: The 26th, is world IPD. [00:25:17] Speaker F: We have a regional forum on the use of intellectual property for solutions to the problem of plastic waste in the Caribbean. This regional seminar aims to explore the. [00:25:29] Speaker E: Plastics problem from an ecosystem perspective, with a focus on identifying potential solutions and commercialization opportunities. [00:25:40] Speaker F: I should highlight that the emphasis is on finding indigenous caribbean solutions to this issue. [00:25:48] Speaker C: That definitely seems to. [00:25:50] Speaker B: Yeah, a lot that people can avail. [00:25:52] Speaker C: Themselves to find out more information, get more involved in matters like these. [00:25:57] Speaker B: And this is where we drop the curtains. Our interview here this morning, as I said it was, always is when you. [00:26:03] Speaker C: Speak of these things, very interesting. The world is changing and there are things that we definitely need to know more about. And this is one of those, because this speaks to persons rights and earning potential as well, and safeguarding themselves from being taken advantage of by persons who fully are aware of what's going on and know how to use these things in unscrupulous manner. [00:26:31] Speaker B: I want to thank both of you for being with us here this morning and for giving us an insight. [00:26:34] Speaker C: We definitely need to have some more. [00:26:37] Speaker B: Conversations with the intellectual property office as. [00:26:40] Speaker C: Time goes by so that we there's. [00:26:43] Speaker B: Greater education on the public's path of some of these matters that they may. [00:26:47] Speaker C: Not necessarily be aware of, and they. [00:26:49] Speaker B: Don'T understand how it could benefit them. So I want to thank both of you once again for being with us here this morning. It was my pleasure having you both. [00:26:56] Speaker D: Thank you so much. And we look forward to coming back anytime. I would actually say in closing, as you mentioned in person, safeguarding their rights and stuff, one more of the sustainable development goals is the first one, SDG one, which is no poverty, ending poverty in all of its forms, everywhere. Intellectual property rights allow persons. I guess it, it encourages entrepreneurship. You're encouraging entrepreneurship. You are facilitating the creation of jobs, and therefore that could lead into ending or at least decreasing poverty. So it is valuable or it is worthwhile for persons who have created something to explore protecting their intellectual property rights. Thank you all very much. [00:27:47] Speaker B: Yeah, it was my pleasure. Once again, thank you both for being with us here this morning. [00:27:50] Speaker C: Thank you. [00:27:51] Speaker A: Now, a station that's giving you back the power to speak your mind. The all new talk radio Freedom 106.5.