The British Commonwealth includes 54 countries, including 17 different Caribbean countries and territories. That’s a lot of different trademark registries, as barrister George Moore explains.
There are 17 Commonwealth Caribbean jurisdictions, all governed by English common law—the principles and workings of which are regarded by many as the world’s most efficient legal system.
Nearly 30 different countries and territories make their home in the Caribbean, including four Dutch-speaking, four French, three Spanish, and one Creole/French-speaking country, Haiti—in addition to the 17 Anglophone English common law countries and territories: Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands (BVI), Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent & The Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago, and Turks & Caicos Islands.
In 2010 new maps were required when the Netherlands Antilles became extinct, and gave way to the birth of three new Dutch-speaking jurisdictions, in addition to Aruba which broke off from the Netherlands Antilles back in 1986: Curacao, Sint Maarten, and BES Islands (Bonaire, St Eustatius, and Saba), also known as the Caribbean Netherlands. St Eustatius and Saba are only 17 miles apart, while Bonaire is some 500 miles distant.
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Commonwealth, trademark registries
