About CAIPO

General Information

The Corporate Affairs and Intellectual Property Office (CAIPO) is a department of the Ministry of Industry and International Business and is recognized as one of the important pillars of Barbados' domestic and international industry and commerce. The Office is primarily responsible for keeping and maintaining a wide variety of business and commercial records which are vital to the orderly conduct of business in and from Barbados.

The Department currently administers and/or has responsibilities under thirty (30) enactments and some ten (10) international agreements and conventions. These enactments confer numerous responsibilities on the Office in relation to, inter alia, the incorporation and registration of companies (both domestic and external) and the regulation of the commercial activities of international business companies, foreign sales corporations, exempt insurance and management companies, off-shore banks and societies with restricted liability.

The Office is also responsible for the registration and maintenance of public records relating to business names, limited partnerships, newspapers, pharmacies, charities, bills of sale and company charges and for the grant and registration of patents, trade and service marks, industrial designs and other intellectual property rights.

As an adjudicator of government property transfer tax and stamp duty, the Registrar of the Corporate Affairs and Intellectual Property Office is also responsible for assessing the stamp duty or property transfer tax due in respect of share transfers and other commercial documents.

For convenience the Corporate Affairs and Intellectual Property Office may be divided into two (2) distinct sections, namely, the Corporate Affairs Section which handles the registration and/or incorporation of various business vehicles such as companies, limited partnerships, trade unions and business names to name a few and the Intellectual Property Section, which primarily deals with the registration and maintenance of public records relating to trade marks, patents industrial designs and other categories of intellectual property.

Professional staff in both Sections of the Department also undertake outreach activities aimed at raising awareness about the various enactments administered by the Department and at promoting public understanding of the intellectual property rights system, including copyright.


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IMPORTANT NOTE: The preceding notes and all published material contained in this website are intended to provide general information to the public on the various topics covered. The material published on this website is the copyright of the Government of Barbados and may not be reproduced in whole or part unless permission is first obtained from the Corporate Affairs and Intellectual Property Office. Further, the information provided on this website should not be used in substitution for consulting the texts of the relevant Laws of Barbados or seeking independent legal or other advice.