Above: the signing ceremony with St Maarten Economic Affairs Minister Ted Richardson and Benelux BOIP Director General Edmond Simon

By the Caribbean Journal staff

St Maarten could soon have the Caribbean’s first-ever fully-automated Bureau of Intellectual Property.

That means that registrations of intellectual property in St Maarten would be entirely digital and could be completed within a few days, according to the government.

St Maarten Economic Affairs Minister Ted Richardson signed the agreement with the Benelux Bureau for Intellectual Property, which is the official body for registration of trademarks in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

In most of the region, copyright registrations are done via a typically cumbersome manual procedure.

Richardson said that, once the St Maarten BIP is established, it could help in execution of assessments for Saba and Eustatius if needed.