OAS and Washington DC non-profit explore increased income from Caribbean intellectual property

WASHINGTON DC – An Organization of American States (OAS) study is to be conducted on a range of Caribbean products to determine their real potential for increased export income based on the value of their intellectual property content.

The study, which the OAS Department of Trade and Tourism has commissioned Light Years IP to undertake, is intended to identify specifically what products Caribbean countries could further exploit in order to increase their export income, including producer income, by applying strategies utilizing a variety of intellectual property-based business tools. The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is funding the study.

With Caribbean countries producing a number of distinctive export products and given a growing consumer demand for products with a unique story and history, some experts believe these suggest opportunities for Caribbean stakeholders to capture a larger share of retail prices earned for their products.

The proposed study will form an important outcome of the Caribbean Intellectual Property (IP) Export Project developed as a joint initiative of the OAS Department of Trade and Tourism and Light Years IP in collaboration with the Caribbean Export Development Agency, the Caribbean Association of Industry and Commerce (CAIC), and other regional stakeholders.

Light Years IP is currently carrying out a “scoping” study on a variety of distinctive Caribbean products that are sold, or could be sold, at premium retail prices in developed markets. Producers of these products are currently not benefiting in any significant way from the high retail price fetched by their products, despite the fact that the distinctiveness originates in their countries.

The benefits may accrue at the household, community and national levels. As poverty derives from insufficient and unpredictable income, stabilizing and increasing export prices will directly help reduce poverty for producers and exporters and over time, have wider indirect developmental impact.

This scoping study underway is an outcome of a Scoping Study that Light Years IP published on products from Sub-Saharan Africa. It can be accessed at: www.lightyearsip.net/scopingstudy