Barbados will soon have a new Director of Intellectual Property.

This news was shared by Minister of Energy and Business Senator Lisa Cummins while addressing the unveiling of Native Caribbean Fine Fragrances last Sunday evening at Caribbean Brushstrokes Art Gallery, Pelican Village, The City.

She explained that when Cabinet approved the creation of Business Barbados, it also agreed to the creation of a dedicated intellectual property agency.

“Historically under CAIPO (Corporate Affairs and Intellectual Property Office), there was one registrar for companies and the same registrar for intellectual property. It meant that the skills for intellectual property were also in competition with those for companies. We separated that. Effective April 1, 2024, those two things were separated. We now have a dedicated intellectual property agency under CAIPO.

“That is going to be set up and we will have a brand new director of IP (intellectual property) effective December 1. That agency will take lead in ushering a new space for creative intellectual property of all kinds,” she said.

Cummins, who congratulated Tamara Gibson, owner of Native Caribbean, and her team for their work and contribution, said she always appreciates the time she gets to spend with small business people.

The minister added she recognised that women have long been the backbone of the creative economy as designers, artisans and entrepreneurs.

“Women must have access to financing, access to business development services. [They] must have ownership of their intellectual property” she said, stressing it was important to recognise that gender equity was not charity, but also economic strategy.

“As Native Caribbean launches a new fragrance, this bottles contains more than a scent. It contains a statement that Caribbean creativity is unstoppable. We celebrate a product; this fragrance carries the essence of who we are, bold, beautiful and uniquely Caribbean.”

Cummins credited Gibson for being part of an era of innovation, expansion and growth, noting this was no small feat.

“We are here to launch a new fragrance, new possibilities. It is the scent of the Caribbean rising very confidently to take responsibility and take leadership of its creative power. Tonight is not just a product launch, it is a declaration that Caribbean imagination is investable, creativity is industry and that culture is capital.”

She said Gibson was like other women across the region, who have for generations mixed herbs, crafted oils and blended botanicals, capturing the essence of the islands and their people.

“We have done it in kitchens, in homes, in workshops and in small roadside stalls and then they grew.

Native Caribbean stands on those shoulders,” she said.

Cummins noted that this type of innovation drives a sustainable, inclusive and diversified economy, adding there must be space for local businesses to grow and thrive.

“Global investments and investments in large companies setting up in Barbados is fine – we need that too – but we need to make sure that we create space for small companies to grow and thrive, and to be in a position where other countries look on and see Barbadian businesses being also those investors going into other countries. I am always proud to see local partners do just that.”

Cummins said she did not want this to be an isolated success story, but part of a national value chain that links creative industries, tourism, export and growth.

Chief executive officer (CEO) of Export Barbados, Mark Hill, charted Gibson’s growth as an entrepreneur building a business with scale and capacity.

“We moved from one space, to a bigger space, retrofitted another space. In order to scale, you need infrastructure and you have to invest in tremendous infrastructure to have the entrepreneurs to be able to deliver on the global front what they need to deliver,” he said.

Hill said it was important to have the support mechanisms in place to allow entrepreneurs to deliver a world-class product to a world-class standard.

“I look for industrialists, people who will go big or go home, and Tamara is that female industrialist. Barbados has few industrialists, people who do big things, who are not afraid to move beyond the status quo and the boundaries that are set.”

The CEO said Gibson’s journey was now beginning, explaining that equipment must now come in and investment made in specific infrastructure to produce for the Caribbean.