Nine businesses in Seychelles are among those that have registered their products for copyrights and showed their products in an exhibition at the National Museum in Victoria on Friday.

The exhibition, held by the Department of Trade, is part of activities to mark World Intellectual Property Day, which is celebrated on April 26 annually.

Intellectual property (IP) covers creations of the mind, such as inventions, literary and artistic works, designs, symbols, names and images used in commerce. Patents, copyright and trademarks protect such property.

A senior trade officer in the Department of Trade, Aissata Dia, told reporters that this year her department "wanted to do something different and show what talents exist in Seychelles, what new creations there are as well as the new designs. We wanted to show that things are happening in the country and that people are registering their work."

Over the years, they mainly held workshops aimed at educating people about the subject.

"Over the past three years we have seen an increased interest in registering through the number of people who have reached out asking for more information to protect themselves," she said.

Dia said, "We also realise that in Seychelles registration is mainly dominated by copyrights and trademarks," and added that this might be because having a patent tends to be a bit more difficult and costly to obtain.

She revealed that following last year's workshop and requests from the participants, "the government is assisting them with their applications to protect their intellectual properties, especially when making a break-through on international markets."

The Trade Department is finalising a scheme that will allow Seychellois businesses to use a fund to register their intellectual properties overseas. This is expected to be in the form of a loan.

Among the businesses displaying their products is Beach Shack - a beach bar in Beau Vallon, a northern Mahe district.

Beach Shack owner, Jill Laporte, at the exhibition. (Seychelles News Agency) Photo License: CC-BY

The Beach Shack owner, Jill Laporte, told SNA, "For two years now, we have been registered as a trademark, it cannot be copied, and if we are, we can take legal actions. All our ideas and the drinks we have created have also been trademarked."

She added that this has pushed the establishment to try to keep the standard that having a trademark demands and that protecting the brand has helped in overseas marketing.

Although at the moment the bar, which is well frequented by Seychellois and visitors alike, does not have too many marketing products, apart from some memorabilia like T-shirts and baseball caps bearing its logo.

A local artist, Justin Reddy has trademarked his work on Country and Western artists "because when you look at our culture there is a lot of country and Western music influences in the Seychellois music."

He said his next project will show reggae music artists, as he has  seen a heavy influence from the genre on the local music scene.