The ‘Intellectual Property Section’ of the Corporate Affairs and Intellectual Property Office is responsible for administering Barbados’ intellectual property rights system and for advising the Ministry of International Business and Industry on the technical and policy issues which underlie Barbados’ intellectual property rights regime.

Intellectual Property comprises two (2) main branches, namely:

Industrial Property for inventions called patents, trade marks or service marks, integrated circuits, geographical indications, plant breeder’s rights and industrial designs;

Copyright for literary, musical, artistic, photographic and audiovisual works and related rights.

To obtain protection for any form of “Industrial Property” the right-holder must make an application to the Office in the prescribed manner. After examination of the application, the Director may grant or renew these rights as the case may be according to law. Registers are kept by the Director in respect of the various categories of industrial property rights and public records are maintained for the information of interested rights-holders and members of the public. Under Barbados law, any rights-holder or other person who is aggrieved by any act or decision of the Director has a right of appeal to the High Court against any act or decision of the Director affecting their rights.

In contrast, there are no such formalities required to obtain Copyright protection. Copyright protection for the creator/author starts as soon as the work is created and no application to the Office for protection is required.

Barbados is a party to many international treaties and conventions which recognize intellectual property rights of several kinds, and which guarantee protection and legal recourse to rights-holders in line with internationally accepted standards.