The intangible Intellectual Property (IP) gains form with celebrations worldwide on World IP Day. 26 April is observed as World Intellectual Property Day every year. The celebration day is to create awareness and understand IP Rights that continue to honor creations and inventions.
History of the Date
In 2000, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) planned to observe World IP Day annually. The enforced date of the convention establishing the WIPO chosen as World IP Day. The purpose of bringing the IP day was to change the perception of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) as something associated with business and also to understand the role of IPR in people’s lives.
The Theme
This year’s theme for the World IP Day celebration is “Innovation for a Green Future.” Right from the food that we eat to the sophisticated technologies that we use are obtained by exploiting nature. It takes a year and a half for our earth to regenerate the resources we use in one single year.
The UN Climate Change Conference (COP 25) of 2019, conducted in Madrid, Spain, stated that a quarter of the population is at the risk of facing water supply issues. The Conference also addressed the ice sheets in Greenland melting at a faster rate. The melting rate is approximately seven times faster than the 1990s. This climate change will cause a rise in sea-level and increase the chances of submerging many island countries.
There is also an increase in the frequency and intensity of natural disasters, such as forest fires, drought, floods, and storms. These issues have made countries realize that it is high time we address environmental issues such as climate change arising due to over-exploitation of our earth’s resources.
The researches we conduct, the choices we make, the products we purchase, the laws and policies that we frame will all have an impact on our environment. WIPO invites everyone to explore the part of IP rights in building our green future.
Objectives of World IP Day 2020
This year’s campaign aims to celebrate researchers and creators who are working on developing various sources of green energy, and other technologies addressing environmental issues. The work put in by these people will steer our planet towards a sustainable future. It encourages these inventors who are using the IP system as a means to bring out their inventions to society.
The campaign brings out how the works of creators help in building our vision towards a green future. The copyright system helps in making a better living for such creators.
It looks into how trademarks help and encourage companies working to build a sustainable environment by protecting their uniqueness. This, in turn, will motivate them to come up with several friendly environmental services and technologies.
The campaign celebrates the role of the patent system in supporting and spreading inventions and innovations worldwide. These inventions will find solutions to several environmental problems. The campaign observes how design rights support designers to use their creativity to design various useful eco-friendly products and technologies.
Additionally, the campaign throws light on geographical indication (GI) rights, which enables the sustainable use of natural resources. It also shows the use of plant-breeding rights that enables the development of resilient crops to combat food scarcity.
World IP Day 2020 Events
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused lockdown in different countries and paralyzed the world economy. The celebrations of World IP Day are moved to virtual platforms. The main reason is to observe safety precautions and prevent the spread of coronavirus.
World IP Day encourages submitting case studies on people who are working on inventions in their area to combat global environmental issues. Thus, the selected case studies will proceed for publication on the World IP Day webpage.
Various programs are organized by countries and IP firms around the world to make World IP Day celebrations exciting. Events such as online essay competitions, online conferences, webinars, and virtual workshops are conducting today. These programs shall create awareness of the role of various forms of IP rights. And also encourage people to work to tackle the environmental crisis.
Therefore, all nation’s IP offices and also some IP firms are joining today to contribute and take part in the initiatives of World IP Day towards building a green future.
