Basseterre, St. Kitts, August 18, 2021 (SKNIS): Jihan Williams, Registrar – Intellectual Property (IP) Office of St. Kitts and Nevis, said that it is important to protect Intellectual Property rights as they are valuable assets for any business and are critical to reaping the benefits from your creations.
“It is important because protection equals control and once you protect something, once you protect your Intellectual Property rights you have the right to control how it is used when it is used, who could use it. You develop the terms and conditions of use,” said Ms. Williams, during her appearance on August 18, 2021, edition of ‘Working for You’. “Without protection, let’s say for example, trademarks, your trademarks have to be registered in order to get protection for them.”
Ms. Williams used sports as an example, noting that IP rights provide the legal framework for the sector.
“If we have a team who produces jerseys or fan T-shirts and they don’t protect their trademarks, what we would see happening is that any random person with the skills and resources to print T-shirts could simply print the logo on these T-shirts, make their money without having any sort of responsibility to share the proceeds from those sales,” said the registrar. “So, what you want to do is to protect it to ensure that you have a legal basis to take action against anyone who uses your intellectual property without your permission.”
She reiterated that it is important to protect IP and trade secrets as the aim is for persons to gain control of their work and prevent others from wrongfully profiting from their creations or inventions.
“So, protection equals control. And in many respects, when it comes to intellectual property, without the protection there is absolutely nothing you can do to ensure that you reap the rewards from your work,” said Ms. Williams.
