Jamaica Arrives At 'Destination Madrid': What Next For Trademark Owners?

Published date12 January 2022
Subject MatterIntellectual Property, Trademark
Law FirmFoga Daley
AuthorMs Dianne Daley McClure

The Trade Marks (Amendment) Act, which came into force on June 30, 2021, heralds a very new era for all trademark proprietors with interests in the Island of Jamaica.

The 2021 Act augmented the protection for nation branding by giving the Registrar power to impose conditions or limitations on trademarks containing Country names, maps, colours, emblems and symbols. Additionally, trademarks containing the Jamaican Coat of Arms, flag, emblems and other national symbols will be denied registration unless consent has been granted by the Government of Jamaica. The Act has also reinforced the government's policy on the protection of traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions (albeit without defining these terms) by disallowing trademarks which misrepresent or misappropriate the traditional knowledge or traditional cultural expressions of indigenous or local communities in Jamaica.

Undoubtedly however, the ground-breaking development is the provision made in the Act for the international registration of marks through simultaneous filings in Madrid Protocol member countries as a precursor to Jamaica becoming a signatory to the international agreement. On January 10, 2022, only six months after the Act came into effect, Jamaica acceded to the Protocol.

For years, there has been much discussion and speculation about what being a Protocol Country will mean for Jamaica. Some have high expectations that the Protocol will make it easier and cheaper for local companies to protect their trademarks abroad and provide significant revenue for the Government of Jamaica in foreign trademark filings. Others have urged and cautioned a measured approached, recognising that the Protocol, while clearly beneficial to large brand owners, does not promise...

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