Thursday, August 23, 2018

Intellectual Property Policing: Notes from Rototom Sunsplash


Our intellectual property is our gold. We should be taught to treat it as such.

There is a major challenge Jamaican creatives face, and that is the policing of our intellectual property.  Once you’re able to get beyond the excitement and the validation (the ‘smaddification’ experience) of seeing your culture on spectacular display at an event such as the Rototom Sunsplash reggae festival, then you realize that what is on show is Jamaican intellectual property over the years.


  
For this I’m grateful that many artists themselves are able to benefit by direct participation through performance or by the sale of merchandise in festival venues like these, but I’m also mindful that some Jamaican creatives are not so fortunate.




One question we pondered as we moved through the venue was how effective were the Jamaican artists at estate planning.  This was relevant to us because of the myriad appearances of artists merchandise particularly of those deceased.  


We could only assume that all the merchandise we saw were properly licensed by the estates of these artists, and that their family continued to benefit from the sale of the goods in events such as these.  


I have argued elsewhere that the sale of merchandise is not something that should be taken lightly by artists as in some instances it could become a significant part of their brand extension, sometimes taking on a life of its own, and therefore becoming a meaningful source of income.




There are sub-cultures such as surfing or skateboarding in which Jamaican music and iconography have found a place, but for which Jamaicas from home are not prepared to take full advantage. It is perhaps our being closed off to these types of experiences that have prevented us from innovating ingenious ways to begin to take advantage of these openings that our music and culture have made.

 


There is something in our thinking that has been allowed to kill aspects of our innovation. As a child, we developed indigenous skates using wood and raw bearings that we would ride downhill, we also made our own wooden skates at that are now sold back to us made of aluminum, and we ditched our pushcarts and pushcart derby.  All these could possibly have grown into something bigger, but it seems we're burdened with a philosophy that has convinced us that as an African diaspora people we have nothing of value coming from below. This in my view is Jamaica’s biggest development challenge because I am of the opinion that whatever the idea capital can be raised, and teams can be organized, providing you have sufficient faith in the value of your ideas. 




Gastronomically speaking, unfortunately for us we found only one Jamaican food vendor at the festival, so presumably there are more opportunities that await enterprising Jamaican food vendors; because everyone likes Jamaican food, right, whether its of the spicy variety, vegan or ital.  Maybe a group of entrepreneurs should get together to explore how we could place more Jamaican food vendors in these venues.  It does seem to be a viable business opportunity.



Jamaica's intellectual property is its gold and we would do well learning how to mine it and investing in the systems that will help Jamaicans to police it.



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