Intellectual property protection is rapidly becoming an area of focus, and Barbadian Dr Wendy Hollingsworth is on a mission to create greater awareness of its importance and relevance in the global market.
“Very often when we think of intellectual property, people think, ‘That has nothing to do with me. I am in trade’, or ‘I am in health. What has that got to do with me?’,” says Hollingsworth.
But in an interview with the Sunday Sun, the biotechnologist made the point: “When you break it down, if you want to have access to markets, then you think in terms of how you actually brand yourself; how you present yourself in a particular market.
“If you have a particular technology, how you actually get that technology into the markets that you want.
“So that all boils down to negotiating technology transfer agreements for which intellectual property plays a significant part.”
What is intellectual property? Hollingsworth defines it this way: “It has to do with protection of your intangible assets; those intangible property rights that you are not very conscious of – your logo, your trademarks, your inventions, even goodwill.”
Her choice of career is clearly not the ordinary. But in her childhood years growing up in Free Hill, St Lucy, Wendy Hollingsworth’s dreams were of something different.
The “skinny, flat-nosed little girl running over the hills in St Lucy, the child who once spoke funny at secondary school [Alexandra]”, recalls growing up in St Lucy.
Fascinated
“I was just fascinated with flowers, flower colour and being able to modify flower colour. So that’s probably why I took that particular path to biotechnology as opposed to human biotechnology or animal biotechnology.”
A graduate of the Barbados Community College, Hollingsworth gained a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Guelph, Canada, majoring in agriculture, with a minor in biotechnology.
Her Master’s in biotechnology was from Wageningen University in Holland, and she obtained the doctorate in biotechnology at Massey University in New Zealand. She also holds the LLM in intellectual property from Turin Law School in Italy.
Her emergence as a biotechnologist with the particular speciality was timely. It was just when Barbados was trying to become TRIPS- (Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights-) compliant, in accordance with World Trade Organisation agreements, that she “got involved in how we put certain bits of our legislation in place, in particular those that pertain to agriculture, which was the plant variety protection legislation”.
“I am a biotechnologist with the emphasis in agriculture and horticulture, and so my interest in intellectual property sprang from the biotechnology.”
Through Conceptualisation, the consultancy she set up with a business partner on her return from New Zealand, Hollingsworth is sharing her expertise locally and regionally.
Biotechnology
The Inter-American Institute for Agriculture recruited her for a brief period to look at the whole area of biotechnology and intellectual property rights as it relates to agriculture and to the environment.
That assignment took her to CARICOM member states, sensitising them on the intellectual property components of the various WTO agreements they would have signed on to.
Operating under Policy Network International, another area of her consultancy, she draws up policy proposals, and has recently done a draft biotechnology policy for CARICOM.
“It has been interesting trying to educate people in the various areas,” Hollingsworth remarked.
And her business is getting some important nods. It has been requested by the World Intellectual Property Organisation to do an intellectual audit of the University of the West Indies.
Yet Hollingsworth observes: “Largely we are still at the point, with intellectual property, where we are trying to get people to recognise and realise its importance. Very often when a client calls, it is because they have a problem.
“We have a few who would come and say, ‘We are looking to do this and we want to put a cost for intellectual property issues in our business plan’. Or they may just have received the threatening letter with advice to cease and desist because they are infringing on someone else’s trademark.”
BIDC seminars
Meanwhile Hollingsworth has been engaging in widespread training. Outfits such as the Barbados Industrial Development Corporation (BIDC) have drawn on this intellectual property expert to conduct sessions at its seminars.
Yet Hollingsworth thinks more can be done to sensitise Barbadians about the whole business of intellectual property protection.
“You have the major agencies like the Intellectual Property Office, the BIDC and to some extent the National Council on Science and Technology.
“They have done a lot of the groundwork, but I think the consciousness needs to be raised to the next level beyond knowing what is intellectual property. How can I use it to benefit my business for competitive advantage in the market?”
For this reason, Hollingsworth sees her “number one” role as educating.
“You cannot go off and get all that knowledge and not use it,” she said.