IPA plans 3-day meet for intellectual property day

TO mark the World Intellectual Property Day yesterday, the Investment Promotion Authority (IPA), in partnership with the Intellectual Property Office PNG, is hosting a three-day regional meeting with various Pacific Island members, in Port Moresby.
The meeting would be for Pacific heads to come up with a regional mechanism for trademark administration to enable PNG and the Pacific to capture the creativity and innovation within their societies and use them to design the future for the region.
In June 2009, trade ministers of the Pacific Island countries agreed to set up a regional trademarks facility, and further endorsed that PNG through its IPO would perform the role as the regional examining body for trademarks.
This was the result of consultations and discussions between the IP Australia, World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and the Pacific Islands Forum secretariat recognising that the Pacific needed to establish a regional IP framework by harnessing their collective resources, expertise and adopting relevant techno­logy to create the facility.
Thus, under the Pacific Plan adopted in 2005, the forum leaders agreed to “create an institution to advocate for and protect traditional knowledge and intellectual property”, and to use trademarks as the tools with the potential to provide substantial economic benefits to PNG and the Pacific.
Officiating at the opening ceremony, Commerce and Trade Minister Gabriel Kapris encouraged the delegation to have proper and effective IP systems as set the base for foreign and local investment.