Govt sues 3 over G-Pan rights

October 23, 2011

Government has initiated legal proceedings against Prof Brian Copeland and two associates—Marcel Byron and Keith Maynard over the rights of the (Genesis G-Pan).

The claim was filed by the State before the High court last Friday.

In its claim, the State is contesting that the Government funded the creation of the G-Pan and Percussive Harmonic Instrument (PHI) spending $33,764,000 to date on the project.

Under the People's National Movement (PNM) government, led by Patrick Manning, it was agreed that government would fund the research and development of the steelpan by Copeland.

Attached to the lawsuit are a number of letters and Cabinet notes which state that all intellectual rights and patents would remain vested in the name of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago.

Also attached to the claim is a letter from Copeland dated April 21, 2006 addressed to Sandra Marchack, former permanent secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister where he enclosed a draft agreement for the project which states "...GORTT has reserved unto itself for its exclusive use and benefit all intellectual property rights in the project and in all research and concept, design, improvements, development and further inventions, whether patentable or not (inventions) made in connection with the project".

Despite all agreements previously made, on May 13, 2009, Copeland wrote to Manning informing him that in order to treat with the demands of the intellectual property a company—Panadigm Innovations Ltd (PIL) was created in the name of former PNM parliamentary secretary Junia Regrello and Copeland with Ronald DeFour as corporate secretary.

The State is demanding among other things an order directing that each of the defendants will immediately cease representing whether through themselves, their servants or agents that they are the owners of the invention known as PHI.

Speaking to the Express yesterday on the matter, Attorney General Anand Ramlogan said this action was necessary to protect the pan.

"No one person was responsible for these creations. These are post graduate UWI students and members of staff worked on the research project on the understanding that this was a labour of love for the benefit of our country. The State invested heavily in this project and it would be a dereliction of duty if I ignored or failed to act on legal advice provided," said Ramlogan.

Queen's Counsel Vincent Nelson will lead attorney Devesh Maharaj and Daniel Solomon in the matter. —AR

Philosophically speaking, it's like this my steelpan people, when one is driving and the police officer stops another driver, one may ask oneself, what did that driver do to have the police lights focusing on him or her? And yes, we may never know the reasons and motivations. Yet when you are the client under the police spotlight and flashing embers, and you are convinced and confident that you are right, then in your mind, the police officer is just going through a formality to charge you, but you know that at the end of your day in court, the ruling will be in your favour and it will consequently reveal the ineptitude of the officer and the fraternity to which he or she belongs.

Likewise, these Genesis Pan (G-Pan) and Percussive Harmonic Instrument (PHI) legal maneuvers initiated by the state may be construed to have various intents; such as attractions, distractions and detractions in the pan world. Of course, this would provide a plethora of sensational stories and create professional vacuums or "steelpan black-holes" at the highest order in the intellectualization of steelpan; patenting, (see link in footnote reference)

Using the aero-space" industry as a current situational analogy, we see space junk is falling back to earth at alarming rate and all we are told is, "the possibility of being hit by space debris is 1:3000 or some magnanimous number. It is my hope that the resultant impact from these ensuing controversies will substantiate the need to release the instruments of the pan-world from the political grips of the litigious minded individuals and elicit lasting truths that will reverberate through the annals of musical time. Eventually, all this has to play itself out in court, and it is quite possible that financial awards of larger sums may have to be paid out to appease the offended parties.

PS: I could have broken this down further into simple english, but I chose to believe the level of language competence is adequate in this forum to elicit appropriate responses from the masses.

I rest my case.

http://www.uilo.ubc.ca/advancing/intellectual_property/patenting.html

Replies

MC Joseph October 25, 2011 at 11:33pm

Philosophically speaking, it's like this my steelpan people, when one is driving and the police officer stops another driver, one may ask oneself, what did that driver do to have the police lights focusing on him or her? And yes, we may never know the reasons and motivations. Yet when you are the client under the police spotlight and flashing embers, and you are convinced and confident that you are right, then in your mind, the police officer is just going through a formality to charge you, but you know that at the end of your day in court, the ruling will be in your favour and it will consequently reveal the ineptitude of the officer and the fraternity to which he or she belongs.

Likewise, these Genesis Pan (G-Pan) and Percussive Harmonic Instrument (PHI) legal maneuvers initiated by the state may be construed to have various intents; such as attractions, distractions and detractions in the pan world. Of course, this would provide a plethora of sensational stories and create professional vacuums or "steelpan black-holes" at the highest order in the intellectualization of steelpan; patenting, (see link in footnote reference)

Using the aero-space" industry as a current situational analogy, we see space junk is falling back to earth at alarming rate and all we are told is, "the possibility of being hit by space debris is 1:3000 or some magnanimous number. It is my hope that the resultant impact from these ensuing controversies will substantiate the need to release the instruments of the pan-world from the political grips of the litigious minded individuals and elicit lasting truths that will reverberate through the annals of musical time. Eventually, all this has to play itself out in court, and it is quite possible that financial awards of larger sums may have to be paid out to appease the offended parties.

PS: I could have broken this down further into simple english, but I chose to believe the level of language competence is adequate in this forum to elicit appropriate responses from the masses.

I rest my case.

http://www.uilo.ubc.ca/advancing/intellectual_property/patenting.html
evan lobo October 24, 2011 at 11:19pm

more pnm bull shit and bobol
jerome ebenezer clarke October 24, 2011 at 8:42pm

This is for Prof Brian Copeland and the others,,,,MAN KNOW THYSELF.??????

This reply was deleted.