Caribbean IP Part 2: Antigua and Barbuda

ISO 3166 country code: AG.

Antigua and Barbuda is party to Berne Convention, Madrid Protocol, Paris Convention, Patent Cooperation Treaty and the WIPO Convention.

The Antigua and Barbuda Intellectual Property & Commerce Office ("ABIPCO") is responsible for intellectual property in the country. They do not have a website of their own and are tagged on to a general Government website. From this we can find out that they celebrated World Intellectual Property Day on 26 April 2012 but not a lot else; their page on Intellectual Property fees erroneously produces information related to company incorporations. They do have a Facebook page but with only one 'like' so far it does not appear to be too popular.

WIPO have provided some statistics. They are not exactly easy to decipher and don't really tell us much except that it seems foreigners file more in Antigua and Barbuda than locals do, but I think most of us could have told ourselves that.

Independent trade mark and design applications are required, although Antigua and Barbuda can be designated in a Madrid Protocol application where it commands just a Complementary Fee (100 CHF) and is therefore inexpensive.

The ABIPCO is not the most efficient Office in the region and trade mark applications can take some time to mature to registration so designating through Madrid can be preferred for this reason too. However, it is modernising and Antigua and Barbuda's membership of the Madrid Protocol is a beacon in a region where membership is not significant.