IN what has been described as a massive intellectual-property win for this country, Tourism, Culture and the Arts Minister Randall Mitchell has announced that pan got Geographical Indication (GI) rights on August 9.
This establishes the country as the birthplace of the instrument, Pan Trinbago president Beverley Ramsey-Moore said yesterday, at the first World Steelpan Conference held at the Hyatt Regency, Wrightson Road, Port of Spain.
Mitchell made the announcement in front of an audience composed of pan enthusiasts and collaborators from as far away as Israel.
Ramsey-Moore said this makes up for the lack of patenting in the earlier days of the pan movement. However, the GI is locally registered and the TT Steelpan GI still has to be filed in other countries.
In a follow-up interview after the announcement, Pan Trinbago secretary Denise Hernandez said the geographical indicator was more significant than a patent, as it branded TT as the birthplace of pan. Hernandez is a member of the GI board.
“Somebody new to the world coming to say where was steelpan made? This GI brands it as the birthplace in TT,” she said.
Hernandez added people wanting to buy authentic manufactured pans and accessories would see a logo attached to these items.
This logo would tell potential buyers that the pan or accompanying accessories were made here.
“As was said, despite the manufacturing of steelpan around the world, the best-sounding tonal-quality pans are coming out of TT.”
When asked to respond to arguments over pan's not being patented, Ramsey-Moore said in the instrument’s early days it was not accepted.
“It was like a social outcast, even our panmen. So all this time we took discriminating, we would have lost the opportunity (to patent).
“But since the social acceptance of the steelpan, and I think that was since Dr Eric Williams called on sponsors to support the movement, then you saw the change gradually happening.
“While we wasted all that time, panmen went abroad, of course, and, given their skills, taught a lot of people to make the instrument, and they went way ahead while we were left behind.
“So whilst we are catching up quickly, things are happening.”
Addressing the possible economic spinoffs that would come with GI, Hernandez said countries not introduced to pan could now do so in theirs.
“The steelpan industry now has the opportunity to really blossom and be the next big economic money-earner for TT and all involved.”
University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) graduates from its bachelor of fine arts programme with a concentration on pan could now be sent to other countries as tutors, she added. Students could also learn to make steelpan accessories, which could result in foreign exchange for the country, she said.
Hernandez said a symbol for the GI has already been designed which was a composite design by all the stakeholders working on the GI application. She said it usually takes a week to two weeks to ensure there is nothing similar in the world, and when that is done, Pan Trinbago w
