Sri Lanka began embarking on the daunting task of the formulation of its intellectual property policy segment that links its โTraditional Knowledge and Cultural Expressions; on 24 April in Colombo. More importantly, Sri Lanka will witness the biggest milestone in its Intellectual property history when, after years of intense background work, the country accedes to the Madrid Protocol by the end of this year.
โFinancial values can be practically calculated on concepts such as intellectual property. On the other hand indigenous cultural heritage is a priceless historic reward found within the country and not an easy task to calculate financially values of such heritages. ย Sri Lanka receiving support from the WIPO to complete accession to the Madrid Protocol by end of 2017โ revealed Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen on 24 April in Colombo.
Minister Bathiudeen was addressing the launch of the international seminar for the Group of Fifteen Member Countries on Issues, Options and Experiences in Developing National Policies and Legislation on Intellectual Property and the Protection of Traditional Knowledge (TK) and Traditional Cultural Expressions (TCE) Seminar for G15, co-organized by WIPO and the Government of Sri Lanka (through Minister Bathiudeenโs Ministry).ย Sri Lanka is the current Chair of G15, until a new country shall take up the chair in 2020. Joining Colombo session are Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN in Geneva HE Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha, Assistant Director General of World Intellectual Property Organisationโs (WIPO) Minelik Getahun, Head of G15 Secretariat Gihan Indraguptha, and Chairperson of Intellectual Property Advisory Commission of Sri Lanka (IPACSL) Ms Suganthie Kadirgamar.
Acceding to the Madrid Protocol (MP) is a breakthrough for Sri Lanka as it is one of two global treaties of the Madrid System for international Registration of Trademarks. The accession will open doors for Sri Lankan brands to register their trademarks in one filing ย which will then be activated across many countries at the same time, affording the much needed global IP protection for Sri Lankan brands for the first time.
โTodayโs pioneering sessions are taking place at a time WIPO is making special efforts to recognise the IP rights of TK and TCE and at a time when global intellectual property and patent registrations are exceeding more than 2.5 million annuallyโ said Minister Bathiudeen and added: โI am pleased to say that we made progress in the 10 Point Action Plan of WIPO-Sri Lanka Cooperation launched following the visit of WIPO DG Dr. Gurry in 2013 with the objective of upgrading the IP regime in Sri Lanka and to enable it to move beyond the traditional domains of copyright and patents. ย In the past three and a half years with the support of WIPO, Sri Lanka has been able to reap significant tangible benefits. They are the soon to be finalized โNational Policy on Traditional Knowledge and Traditional Cultural Expressions (TK and TCEs)โ, the โoverall IP policyโ currently being developed for Sri Lanka in consultation with the relevant stakeholders, โIP Hubsโ set up to accelerate innovation and commercialization, developing the Sri Lanka National Innovation Index with WIPO, receiving continued technical assistance and capacity building from WIPO to strengthen National Intellectual Property Office (NIPO), progress in acceding to theย Marrakesh Treaty to facilitate access to published works for persons who are blind, visually impaired or otherwise print disabled. ย Seventh is Sri Lanka receiving support from the WIPO to complete accession to the Madrid Protocol by end of 2017 or early 2018. The next point of progress is Sri Lankaโs participation for the first time as a pilot country in a WIPO Project on โIntellectual Property Tourism and Cultureโ. The ninth is incorporating amendments to the National IP law to facilitate registration of โGeographical Indicationsโ in Sri Lanka, and the progress in the tenth point is the successful conclusion of many training sessions to advance capacity building and raise awareness in Collective Management of Rights and Copyrights and to build respect for IP and effective enforcement of IP rights.ย ย Apart from the progress in this ten point plan, our own patent and intellectual property segment too has recorded increased registrations.โ
Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN in Geneva HE Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha said that the launch of G15 & WIPO backed event has been years in the making. โG15 is striving to achieve greater South-South cooperation and building capacity among its members. G15 identified IP as one of four areas of focus. In IP realm, G15 countries share many interest-specially in multilateral platforms such as WIPO. Among them the protection of IP related to TK, is of paramount importance to G15 members. It is important that the Traditional Knowledge and Practices protected from piracyโ he said.
The four focus areas identified by G15 are Intellectual Property, Migration and Development, Renewable Energy and Information Communication Technology (ICT).
WIPOโs Director Minelik Getahun detailed how the Colombo sessions will foster IP tradition among participant countries. โThis seminar will not result in any โfinal conclusionโ nor a โformal reportโ but will prepare a platform based on exchange of experiences by the member countriesโ Getahun said and added: โBased on the broad concepts outlined in Constantine Conference, the Colombo session will go for policy formulation and implementationย ย ย as well as exchange of national experiencesโ he said.
The Colombo session opened today is a follow up to G15โs 2016 Algeria session on Protection of Intellectual Property (IP) rights of traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions.
After the two day G15 Colombo seminar concludes on 25 April, yet another two day seminar will be open April 27 for Sri Lankan IP experts and officials by WIPO and Minister Bathiudeenโs NIPO.
Leader of All Ceylon Makkal Congress