Jamaican heads to Geneva to run regional bureau of World IPO
CAROL Simpson will head the Caribbean bureau within the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) following her resignation from the state-owned Jamaica Intellectual Property Office (JIPO).
She said that the focus will include the protection of the creative industries in the region among other things.
“Really developed countries have patent systems that are well developed but in developing countries our creative industries are well developed,” she said of the region’s competitive advantage in an Observer interview.
Government is yet to choose a replacement for Simpson who held the position for seven years.
“We are at varying levels of development as it relates to IP administration, so it’s how to manage the programme so that each of the territories can advance their own IP system. Its not as if there is a harmonised (method),” she said.
Starting July, Simpson, who is a Jamaican, will manage the Caribbean’s technical programmes, activities and Intellectual property (IP) administration from Geneva, Switzerland. Her scope includes the Anglophone and Francophone islands.
The outgoing JIPO head explained that Jamaica, Trinidad and Barbados are the most advanced IP Anglophone nations in the region. However, Jamaica’s main challenge relates to lack of resources, she said.
Simpson, whose background is in international law, rose to the position of executive director at JIPO in 2007. She leaves the office with $66 million earned in trademark licences in the fiscal year. Under her tenure, Jamaica signed a number of IP related treaties and hosted copyright conferences. In 2008, she facilitated the publishing of a WIPO- sponsored landmark study conducted by Dr Vanus James on the economic value of copyright. The study valued Jamaica’s copyright sector at 4.8 per cent of gross domestic output or US$465 million in 2008.
“I have seen the development of IP in Jamaica and I can say that JIPO is a brand and a success. To be selected is an honour and I will represent my country and Caribbean at the highest level,” she said.
WIPO established in 1967 is one of 17 special agencies of the United Nations set to protect IP.
