Happy World Intellectual Property Day

Jane Lambert

Today is World Intellectual Property Day. It commemorates the day on which the day in 1970 on which the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization ("WIPO") came into force. Since the day has been marked by events around the world to promote awareness of intellectual property.

Most of those events follow a common theme.  This year's theme is Powering change: Women in innovation and creativity.  The WIPO website explains:

"Every day women come up with game-changing inventions and life-enhancing creations that transform lives and advance human understanding from astrophysics to nanotechnology and from medicine to artificial intelligence and robotics.

And in the creative sphere, whether in the movies, animation, music, fashion, design, sculpture, dance, literature, art and more, women are re-imagining culture, testing the limits of artistry and creative expression, drawing us into new worlds of experience and understanding.

The important and inspiring contributions of countless women around the globe are powering change in our world. Their “can do” attitude is an inspiration to us all. And their remarkable achievements are an invaluable legacy for young girls today with aspirations to become the inventors and creators of tomorrow.

More than ever before, women are taking up leadership roles and making their voices heard in the science, technology, business and the arts. This is good news. With women and men working together, we strengthen humanity’s hand, and improve our ability to enrich our shared cultural wealth and develop effective solutions to alleviate poverty, boost global health, and safeguard the environment."

The number of events around the world is mounting like the digits of a taxi meter.   When I started to write this piece there were 10 events in the United Kingdom.  While I have been writing another 2 have appeared in Aberdeen alone.  They range from a seminar in Newcastle given by the WIPO itself in collaboration with the Intellectual Property Office to a conference in Edinburgh by the Sottish Bar (Faculty of Advocates).  In London the Intellectual Property Awareness Network is holding a special event to an invited audience in the Houses of Parliament on the theme Global Britain Great for IP: Great for Britain.

On behalf of everyone in my chambers I should like to wish all those women and men around the world who create intellectual assets whether as artists, designers, entrepreneurs. inventors, marketeers or otherwise as well as my colleagues around the world - lawyers, patent and trade mark agents and others - engaged in defining, exploiting and protecting such assets a happy World Intellectual Property Day.