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Pan Hysteria? A Review of Innovation and Invention

Posted by Nigel Campbell on March 23, 2011 at 10:30pm
I wrote the article cited below back in May 2002 when I was living abroad. It addressed the nervousness of some nationals in the diaspora to what was reported as the "conquest" of pan by foreigners. In light of my last note on the design of pan as a factor of optimizing dispersion, which generated heated debate on who did what and when for pan, I thought I would again "go backwards to go forward" with the conversation on pan by looking at existing patents and their utilization.

PAN HYSTERIA?
Nationals of Trinidad and Tobago let out a collective gasp at the Trinidad Expresss newspaper report by Terry Joseph last month entitled "Pan Shocker" detailing the successful patent by two Americans, Maryland-based George Whitmyre and Harvey J. Price of Delaware for the "Production of the Caribbean Steel Pan." Readers were then hurriedly corresponding with newspapers and opining on electronic media talk shows on the temerity of these two Yankees—read: white men— patenting we own t'ing. "The sweat of the Black man's brow has now been owned by these Americans who have the considerable backing of the US government against all challenges," was how one writer approached TanTan, "much like how they try to thief Lord Invader's Rum and Coca Cola."

The patent document, available online at the US Patent Office's website, outlines the applicants' claim for using a hydro-forming process to make a pan that is consistent and efficient to produce, along with modifications to facilitate transportation, storage and tuning. A few things are apparent from a cursory look at the document:
  1. First, the patent was granted since April 10, 2001, a year before the article broke in the Express. 
  2. Second, no reference is made to Trinidad and Tobago, but to the more general Caribbean. (We have since heard that the Trinidad and Tobago government is seeking to trademark the name so that all comers will recognise the birthplace of pan.)

12393750873?profile=originalThe inventors also cite as their only steel pan reference, a pan tuning book written by Swedish pan enthusiast and tuner, Ulf Kronman. And this is where things fall apart! That book on pan tuning was the first such published internationally back in 1992. At that point, we failed to recognise the slow release on the grip of ownership of the idea and culture of pan. Collateral material—books, CDs, score sheets—and the assets of cultural production were ceded by inaction or executive fiat, to "foreigners" to reap the profits of our labours. We missed the boat in encouraging local participation in the process at that point. The international industry in cultural marketing was a void to persons in Trinidad and Tobago. Those trying to breach were called traitors; just ask Ellie Mannette.

DC-based Trinidad-born lawyer, Nigel Scott, who specializes in intellectual property matters first expressed to this writer that this is hysteria. Scott notes that patents are country specific, and so far there is only the US patent on record which speaks to the limitation of claim by the inventors. My counter argument to him that the US represents a large potential market for the inventors' manufactured instrument speaks to the difference in vision between Trinbagonians and Americans; where we see fête and bacchanal, Americans see money! Living in America, as we do, is to be bombarded with ideas and concepts which, useful or not, represent the hegemony of US inventiveness and marketing. By example, Spain will be forever known as the birthplace of the classical guitar, whereas the innovation of the electric guitar, an American invention, has been the catalyst for the rock and roll industry and by extension, the profitable global music industry. Market forces drive industries, not legalisms.

A challenge to the patent is forthcoming from the noises of government ministers, mainly Legal Affairs Minister Camille Robinson-Regis under whose portfolio intellectual property falls. The intellectual property protocols are still being negotiated by the WTO, but examples such as this show our vulnerablty. The legal culture in Trinidad and Tobago, which is not necessarily proactive but reactive allows for effective incursions by others into the creative assets of the islands. Challenges to patents, within the statute of limitations, are always part of the process of patenting. Examples from India, backed by large Indian corporations and research centres, show how Third World nations have successfully reversed patents for cultural by-production of native assets awarded to US companies.

In our case, much of the research on using the hydro-forming process to make a pan was done by CARIRI and the University of the West Indies at St. Augustine by Clement Imbert and others in the 1970s. Their reluctance or inability to apply for a patent on their innovations may be indicative of the malaise of the society. (Petty politics and funding have been suggested.) The hysteria that Scott speaks of is a symptom of the late recognition by our citizens to the gap between industrial societies like the US and Europe and "client cultures" like our own. At the end of the day, guitar music and instrument production, and its profit are the domain of America, not Iberia. Can we be far behind in this example? Unlike Spain, in the previous example, we do not have a documented cultural heritage of centuries to fall back on. A "work of mas" had to be defined by the Swedish consultant to the government on the reformation of our intellectual property laws in the 1990s! Such are our legal minds.

Intellectual property is not something to be glibly laid bare for all-comers to exploit. This patent, Production of a Caribbean Steel Pan, is possibly the first step in a series of patents to streamline the production of the instrument to take advantage of economies of scale between handmade and assembly line production. Quality counts in the ethereal realm, quantitiy counts in dollar and cents: whose side do you want to be on?
Source: Campbell, Nigel A. "Pan Hysteria?" TanTan 1(2) (May 2002): 4. Print.


Since that article was written for the newsletter of the Trinidad and Tobago Association of Washington DC, "the United States Patent and Trademark Office has maintained the validity of the Production of a Caribbean Steelpan patent" by Whitmyre and Price. Them boys could start manufacturing in China for all we know, and wouldn't have to pay royalties/license fees, and swamp the world including Trinidad and Tobago with cheap instruments. If the quality up to mark for a non-professional series of instruments, market forces could see persons ask for a simple "Caribbean Steel Pan" as opposed to a local handmade artisan instrument. Pan soloists, good and bad, could flourish with the availability of cheap pans. I think that solo instrument sales as opposed to orchestra acquisitions of a whole ensemble could be an area for demand growth, although according to their website, PANXPRESS | www.steelpans.com, Whitmyre and Price are targetting school bands, a ready and eager market, I suppose. [Shit, even the domain name they using seems like an educated incursion. We miss that boat, too.]

Looking at the US Patent Office website at related patents, we see a number of instruments and methods of manufacture and teaching have had patents filed:

According to the Intellectual Property Office in the TT Ministry of Legal Affairs, one lapsed for non-payment of fees, and the other was reversed due to a challenge by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago.

With reference to the G-Pan musical instrument, it is noteworthy that the owner of the patent internationally is the GOVERNMENT of TT! Compare with all other inventions noted above by independent inventors. A friend of mine who is an engineer at UTT noted that his professional colleagues at UWI, unlike the pioneers Anthony Williams, Ellie Mannette and others, didn't "pelt voop" regarding the invention of the G-pan. It is known that because those pioneers never patented their inventions, which can be characterised as elementary hit-and-miss, non-R&D, they never were able to capitalise, in a large commercial sense, beyond mere artisan wages. That, plus over 50 years to get to the point where we are now with pan are not forward thinking intellectual strategies. Trinidad and Tobago had to start from scratch. Inventor Brian Copeland says, "G-Pans are an attempt to re-establish TnT's ownership of steelpan technology." A new pan for a new century! Yes, it's just a pan, and no, it's not widely accepted, but from a legal and engineering point of view, we would be on the same stage as the Americans, Europeans, and the Asians. We would be global and intellectual. The problem is, we would not be practical.

Athough G-Pan technology is a step forward from the work of Clement Imbert and others at CARIRI, the ultimate vision of its inventor is the instrument being a catalyst for growth and respect for a steelpan industry. As I wrote in my previous note, American artisans are innovating on a design by Swiss engineers, The Hang, to create variants which promise ease of use and a short learning curve, by tuning in "a pentatonic scale so that even players without any musical background can play any note combination." Placing instruments in the hands of many is a better catalyst for an industry than getting the orchestra right. The patents point to inventions of music notation for rationalized music publishing, inventions of tools for potential learning applications using computer technology. Portable instruments would be another area for research by the Trinidad and Tobago inventor. The time is now, the world is your market. Go brave.
Tags: Brian, CARIRI, Copeland, clement, e-pan, g-pan, imbert, patents, price, steelpan, whitmyre
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Comments

  • Cindy Cummings September 1, 2011 at 4:02pm
    Do you have a lawyer with IP experience?  When will the paper work be drawn up to start the process?  Now that it is well-known that you have to have the items patented?  When are you going to begin?
  • jerome ebenezer clarke August 30, 2011 at 3:34pm

    Firstly is that i would be very greatfull to know what is the present situation with the G Pan,,secondly is that STEELBAND,,,,STEELPAN,,was invented by T & T  and for support of same if i,m correct  steelpan  players from T&T  had visited guyana in the 70,s i believe, for a backup to this information i think that contact can be made with,,,,,,godfrey@godfreychin.com,,,,i do believe he is now residing in the u.s.a.,,he has a few newsprint of the then time , the first visit to Guyana by a steelband from T & T,our foreparents were robbed in the early days of????? we are all free and educated. 

  • Sweet Eustace April 1, 2011 at 2:09pm

    Thank you Jimi for the correction and allow me to correct my self I read over my own rhetoric and your response three times, I am working from memory here so I have to dig in deep and I stand corrected,it is now comming back to me, I was working on a Porta pan and Jumo walked in, perfect Gentleman as he has allways been, and I was really ellated to be introduced to him I knew about the Jumoline and you said this is the man that designed the device I was using, you tried to tell me who he was nd I already knew some where in my silly memory my files got fragmented and thought you were involved with the jumoline, since it was paterned in the style you use my dots connected silly, My comments need some punctuation marks I was told that on another message board (guess I'm a bad typist) but I did credit Jumo as the creator of the Idea, was just trying to give Jim some pips as builder which he has corrected me on,nuff respect to the builders. still not trying to make waves but I have seen bigger pans so bugs Guiness are the ones who are corrupting history,

               Bugs oh gorm go easy on mih (yes ah beg parden) I am not trying to rewrite history. History is made and some of it is documented, some of it is deciphered by known facts against evidence left behind, as it coresponds with logic, interpretation, some of it by recollection of thoughts memory etc, writing history is no accurate data, my turn to boof you up whilst the participants are alive people may have different recollections of the same experience in which all were participating, unless filmed, the facts are allways subjucated to interpretation,

    Bottom line is more than half of history has never been told and whilst participants are alive and have their senses kicking even the makers of history at times rewrite their own history, Did Bill Clinton Lie under Oath he lied in front of the camera but under oath he Said "it will depend on the definition of sex", people are still to this day confused by the fact that Iraq were stockpiling thousands of misiles which had the capabilities to carry WMD"s as evidence that Iraq had WMD"s none of which to this day were never found, it has been alledged that Sparrow did not write many of his Calypsoes yet he was given a Doctor rate for writing whilst the alleged writers are still alive, people said there was a cock on the Red house before Robinson assumed power in 1986, and he replaced it with a Drsgon when according to researcher William published that it was a sea serpant, and pictures of the famous Dragon ont the red house is all over the place befor the NAR era, inspite of having a team of tuners for years Lincoln Noel's name was not included on the Desperadoes banner,and so was several others, yuh start me up bugs, you need to check history, Columbus thought he was in the indies even so he should have called it the east indies if he went west then he would be on the east not west, ah gone................

  • Bugs March 31, 2011 at 11:15am

    So Sweet Eustace are you just rewriting history while the participants are alive, have their senses and kicking?

     

    bugs

  • jomo wahtuse March 31, 2011 at 9:53am

    Thank you  Jim for  your honesty,Ours has  been a beautiful relationship which as  you rightly stated  started  way back in the eighties , we  have the  distinction  of  producing the  first detachable steelpan instrument  in 1988 called the 'Manetone' an innovation which maybe only you and I can appreciate up to this day, I respect  you Jim for  your intelligence , your innovativeness and your intensity of purpose and many other virtues. keep well and remember  we have the Bykemower to complete .

    Best wishes,

    Jomo

  • Jimi phillip March 30, 2011 at 10:52pm
    T=I would like co correct a serious error that Eustace made concerning the Jomoline, Jomo Wahtuse and me.Eustace is saying that in the presence or Jomo that I told him that the idea of the Jomoline was Jomo's and I did the building and tuning. I don't dnow if Eustace dreamt thaked on the building and tuning of it t, but that is not true, and could never be true. I am glad that he said (in the presence of Jomo). Because i could never have said that in the face of Jomo,I would have to be crazy.Now, let me make this clear. The Jomoline is Jomo's idea of which several people worked on the building and tuning of it. I was not in Trinidad when that was happening and i did not know about Jomo or the jomoline .I met Jomo in the eighties and he told me about theJomoline,and he wanted me to do some work on it. So I had the Jomoline for a while where I did some work on it. If Eustace needs some info. on the Jomoline he can check with Jomo Wahtuse.I have known Jomo since we first met I we never had any misunderstandings especially where pan innovations are concerned, we discuss a lot of idears and I would not like anything or anyone to spoil that or my name. Before I go I would like to quote a piece from Eustace comment. "I have said too much without reading properly" So we must also listen properly before saying too much.
  • Sweet Eustace March 28, 2011 at 8:47pm
    this western world was not just conquered by swords bullets and cannons, but its greatest weapon was the instrument of GAB yea I play on the streets and a new person gets there and just because he had consecetively playing there for a certain period he calls it his spot, and claims it ( he should pee on it as the dogs do, then the cats will have nothing" when the flag of Spain was planted it signified a state ment a very arrogant and ignorant one "let me see your flag, this is mine" there had to be a first person to discover that little bumps on a piece of metal can be articulated to produce sounds consistent with those of known musical instruments whoever he is or was did so probably not realising he was unto a new trend, it inspired inventors and innovators alike, all to persue a brilliant idea and to perfect it in their humble manner they did,, says Carlton"zigiliee" Barrow "I was told that some body came out one time with a three note pan, so i rushed back home to make one and came up with four to discover that there were several people all with four notes some time later I tried for five and found that people were out there with six so i gave up and worked on the whole scale" by then everybody were playing them, when spree tried to fix his pan he was unaware that he was about to launch the oficial modern pan and when Ellie took a shot at it his knowledge working with metals amd making pots helped the steel to take a more scientific approach rather than accidental discovery, Never did we ever believe that we had to endorse opur National instrument with protocols, we are cats something has to be wrong with them dogs noses, Cat's pee is very strong, so they should know when they are in cat's domain, we will have to show our claws now and if them silly dogs dare to approach use it, sad though,  
  • Cindy Cummings March 28, 2011 at 5:41pm
    If anyone had told the creator of the steelpan years ago, that it had to be registered along with the sticks and the stands, the idea would have been considered a joke.  Everyone would have had a good laugh.  No one in Trinidad paid any attention to this matter, but others who are wiser can reap the benefits.
  • Sweet Eustace March 26, 2011 at 9:22pm
    I am strapped for time here and I want to chime in but I honestely believe this is oner of the healthiest pan discussions and we not dealing with mere rhewtoric here I haven't gotten to the Jumoline issue yet as I await to see what some of the replies as to regards the measurements are I have seen bigger drums than the Jumoline there are several in the workshop of a tuner in Miami named Roberts measuring over five feet in Diameter I know the jumoline is oval shaped and is less than four feet on the narrow side, and to my memory not bigger than five feet on the long end, speaking of that I have no idea other than what I was told by Jimi Phillip and in the presence of Jumo himself that the Idea was his but the builder and tuner was Jimi, not Jumo all Jumo did was construct the device to build it, Thank you Nigel you have bought out a very intelectual  disscussion backed not by rhetoric but facts, we do have some very good and knowledgeable comentators here except for Sid and having been walked through the steps with Richard Mc David during the 1992  first ever comprehernsive Pan technology course which though intresting inspite of it being a circus of errors in wich the dictators of the course had no clue as to what  should be done, I had a chance to peep at the abandoned works of the 70's, and Mr Mc David made no bones to let us know of all the bickering that occured amongst you guys, it was a shame I personally would like to take a shot at the brass pan,with what I have learnt now, I play one of Harvey's stainless steel pans and it has won the approval of many panplayers and tuners, I have mastered my tuning ability to the point where it is just another type of material and the ability to produce tones on a piece of metal is not restricted to mild steel my pan sounds like any well tuned steel pan out there, and the art of producing the tones depends on the ability of the tuner to control his tourque , his trouble shooting instincts his ability to look and listen, and his understanding of metal responses sound and shape wise, as far as the hang I beg to differ it is another steeldrum, or pan and I am sure if we include it into the family of pans with innovations it can put smiles on faces of struggling pan tuners, the hype is caused by the need as a lot of people on the outside world are more intrested in the tone of the instrument rather than its musical ability, it is still a novelty, as much as they love the pan they would save money and borrow wait thre to five years for a hang, instead of a cheap steel drum, we got work to do here, The cultural back lash in Delaware is as a result of thousands of years of conditioning of a missapproiated respect for "so called " authority "Hey ! you cannot tell Stevie Wonder he cannot drive the car, that is Stevie wonder, hand him the keys" I hope you get my drift but "it is in the Bible, I heard it on the news , I saw it on TV etc",  Nuff can be said about this this forum once placed a bad hair day performance of Boogsie in Antigua on You Tube and people were complementing the performance which I am sure that Boogsie himself would hate, and scolding the critics, Harvey's dream of controling pan in Delaware, is only a reflection of the responses to authority, it is up to us to unearth the truth bout pan to the world and we need to stop the "never see come see" attitude and get serious, Harvey cannot get Pan Express off the ground if we were suppourting all of our hard working pan people, by the way a quatro is considered a guitar also the mandolin etc by string players in the broad scale, as far as the developement of pan "nobody does it better" than us, what Harvey was hoping for was for Remo or Lp or Roland etc would pick up the Idea and mass produce pans, and he will sit and make a pretty penny, but the thin line between getting a close to true note and just a similar noise is still dependant on the trained expertise of a tuner, I have said too much without reading properly this important discussion, I will have to carefully read each contribution, but a word to Brian, keith and others there has to be a stronger bridge between the actual tuners and builders with the engineers and others and please do not isolate the users they to have a part to play, I am not to familar with Pete Segar's  book but the vauge contact I had with it tends to suggest that Ulf made the first comprehensive and trully scientific book on tuning,I would recomend it to any beginer, and so did Rudolph Charles and bertie Marshall, Pete wrote about how pan is made but Ulf made a handbook. nuff respect thanks for the data Nigel, a lot of people are totally unaware of it, I have lost my respect for people who have their names endorsed on things they have not created,
  • Nigel Campbell March 25, 2011 at 12:01pm

    In light of Brian Copeland's corrective, I submit the following references:

    • An article outlining Pete Seeger's contribution to movement of pan outside Trinidad - http://www.nyfolklore.org/pubs/voic34-1-2/words.html
    • Link to Smithsonian Folkways site for album -http://www.folkways.si.edu/albumdetails.aspx?itemid=1437
    • Library of Congress Online Catalog entry - http://1.usa.gov/dPzwvj

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