A Review of the Law Relating to the Protection of Copyright and Trade Secrets in Jamaica

Tara Carnegie, Legal Officer, Lascelles, deMercado & Co., Limited, Jamaica

Copyright protects the intellectual property rights of authors of original works. Trade Secrets are protected by the laws governing the treatment of information divulged subject to a duty of confidentiality. The essence of each is captured in the following: “…copyright is capable of helping to resist invasions of privacy, but the intrusion must take the form of making at least one copy, or of giving a performance in public, or of doing one of the other acts specified as constituting infringement. Coupled with this, there must be a copying of the manner of expression and not merely use of the information contained in the copyright work…Breach of confidence protection resembles copyright in that the information which the defendant seeks to deploy must derive from that which the plaintiff seeks to protect. But confidence protection is not generally tied to particular ways of using the material. It is concerned with the information in substance and not in form, … ” I will begin by setting out a synopsis of the law of copyright and the law of confidence, respectively and then address how these are useful in protecting the information and goodwill of brand building companies.

Tara Carnegie attended the University of the West Indies where she obtained the B.Sc. Accounting and later the LL.B. She attended the Norman Manley Law School where she obtained the Certificate in Legal Education. She was called to the Jamaican Bar in 2004 and has been practicing as Legal Officer at Lascelles Mercado & Co. Limited since then.

Lascelles deMercdo & Co. Limited is a company listed on the Jamaican stock exchange. It is the holding company for a diverse conglomerate of companies engaged in the manufacture, marketing and sale of wines and spirit brands including its own Appleton Estate Jamaica Rum and Appleton Jamaica Rum brands; the manufacture and distribution of pharmaceutical and agricultural chemical products and the distribution of consumer products; the provision of general insurance services; the marketing and sale of motor vehicles; and the provision of aircraft handling services. The primary trading companies within the group include J. Wray & Nephew Limited, Lascelles Limited, Globe Insurance Company of Jamaica Limited, Kingston Industrial Garage Limited and AJAS Limited.