Transforming Trademark Law in the Caribbean: New Legislation Empowers Brand Owners by Keesha Fleming Lake
- Hetanshi Gohil
- Aug 13
- 2 min read
In The Caribbean IP Annual 2025, Keesha Fleming Lake, Managing Partner at Cervieri Monsuarez (Anguilla), provides an essential update on the evolving landscape of trademark law across the Caribbean. After years of advocacy, predictions, and tracking progress, her article confirms that what many IP professionals have long awaited is sweeping legislative reform through the region, transforming outdated systems and aligning them with global standards.
Caribbean IP: One Region, Many Regimes
Although often referred to collectively, the Caribbean is not a single IP jurisdiction. Instead, it comprises over 28 independent legal systems, each with its own laws, processes, and levels of maturity. For trademark practitioners, this complexity requires local expertise, strong examiner relationships, and the patience to navigate each unique framework. Thankfully, many of these frameworks are finally undergoing long-overdue modernisation.
Bermuda's Trademark Act 2023: A Long-Awaited Milestone
After years of delay, Bermuda’s new Trademark Act is expected to come into effect in 2025. Major updates include:
A 10-year registration period (replacing the previous 7-year term)
Elimination of the outdated Associated Trademarks system
Transition to a single register system, eliminating the Part A/Part B division
These reforms modernise Bermuda’s IP regime and better align it with UK and global standards, enhancing clarity, efficiency, and investor confidence.
The Bahamas: Complete Legislative Overhaul
The Bahamas is set to enact a full suite of new IP laws in 2025, including:
Trade Marks Act 2024
Patents Act 2024
Copyright Act 2024
These reforms will bring decades-old laws into the 21st century, introducing protection for services, aligning classification with the Nice Classification, and establishing a Bahamas Intellectual Property Office to oversee enforcement and implementation. With a new 10-year registration/renewal period, this modernised system represents a major leap forward for the jurisdiction.
The Regional Picture: Progress, But Gaps Remain
Keesha acknowledges the wave of reform across jurisdictions like Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, BVI, and Antigua & Barbuda, but notes that other territories Suriname and Guyana in particular, are still operating under outdated frameworks. While legislative change is accelerating, regional consistency remains a work in progress.
Conclusion Keesha Fleming Lake’s insight offers a hopeful yet pragmatic view: Caribbean trademark law is evolving jurisdiction by jurisdiction into a more unified, global-ready system. With enforcement measures improving and more countries expected to adopt the Madrid Protocol, IP owners, local and international, are gaining the protections they need in a complex, competitive market.
Read the full article in The Caribbean IP Annual 2025 to learn how legislative reform is strengthening brand protection and transforming IP law across the Caribbean.
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