If we were to look into a crystal ball, what would we see? Could we see what the future looks like? What would the buildings, computers, clothes, or works of art look like?
The digital world has shaken up IP laws around the globe
The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) is, once again, spearheading the festivities which make up World Intellectual Property Day. This day, which falls every year on April 26, is dedicated to the role of intellectual property in encouraging and supporting creativity and innovation.
Creativity and innovation are not just the latest buzzwords. We haven’t woken up from a long slumber to suddenly find out that they exist.
Rather, we are living thanks to the benefits derived from creativity and innovation for the last centuries, and only now are we really switched on to how creativity and innovation are playing a leading role in our daily lives.
Our phones, computers, cars, music players, fridges, coffee makers, even our medical and construction equipment, and planes and trains are now packed with technology which, in the past, would have been quickly dismissed as science fiction.
This year’s tag-line is Creativity: The Next Generation. It is not merely a slogan. The message contained here is really two and not one, for not only is it a celebration of creativity, but it is also a tip of the hat to forthcoming generations.
The younger brains who, with their creativity will shape and change the world we live in, either online or in the real world. Possibly both.
As Malta, a member of WIPO, also gears up for World IP Day, we realise that intellectual property is not alien to Malta. Our legal system has incorporated some form of intellectual property statute for centuries now. Maltese laws on intellectual property have not only developed due to our legal evolution – EU membership having the greatest impact on our laws – but have actually developed with society and technology.
My favourite example of the law changing to keep up with technology is the definition of an “audiovisual work” in our Copyright Act, where with the words, “a series of related images which impart the impression of motion, with or without accompanying sounds,” we witness the law’s existence at the time of the move from silent films to “talkies”.
Malta’s intellectual property laws have come a long way. Yet changes in society and technology will forever mean that our IP laws will have to continue to evolve. The digital world has shaken up IP laws around the globe.
But thanks to our involvement in joining and signing up to international and regional organisations discussing IP, we can keep abreast with this constant evolution. The European Union, like the WIPO, is another such forum for development, growth and change.
Only recently, Malta was part of the cluster of EU member states which joined forces and set up the European Community Patent through the enhanced co-operation procedure.
A process started in 1973 reached its culmination just a few weeks ago, when the agreement for a patent court was signed. This was the last part of the puzzle, making “the patent package” whole.
But it is not only with patents that Malta has kept to the forefront. This applies to all intellectual property rights, and this can be seen and attested to in no other place than our law courts. More and more claims with an intellectual property subject matter are reaching our courts.
The Maltese creative population has not only realised the potential of their intellectual property assets, but is fighting to protect them.
Could we be looking at a scenario where we will have a court or tribunal specially set up and dedicated solely to hearing intellectual property claims? Would this be science fiction or a future reality?
www.fenechlaw.com
Jeanine Rizzo specialises in intellectual property law at Fenech & Fenech Advocates.