Minister of Business Development and Tourism Patrice Minors has presented prizes to students for essays about intellectual properties.The essay competition, along with an exhibition at the Bermuda Society of Arts Gallery, was part of the 2011 celebration of World Intellectual Property Day on April 26. The global theme for the day this year was “Designing the Future.”In a statement on Friday, Ms Minors stressed the importance of intellectual properties on the Island, saying the essay competition provided an opportunity for Bermudian students to develop an interest in the subject.“The Government of Bermuda is committed to encouraging Bermudians of every age to recognise their creative spark, their inner problem-solver and the author, artist and musician that is latent and often unexplored,” Ms Minors said.“Intellectual property being the creations of one’s mind are some of Bermuda’s greatest assets and the promotion and protection of these assets is vital to our economy, our development and our future.“We are proud of all the essay winners. We encourage them to keep up the good work, keep dreaming their dreams of the future and do all that they can to help the word, and especially our Island home.”