The important role intellectual property plays in innovation and creativity is marked each year on April 26. This year’s theme is innovation for a green future! Here are key points from the World Intellectual Property Organization:
- A green future means tackling climate change and IP-driven innovation will be key to solving this shared, global challenge.
- New climate-friendly innovation and new thinking are needed urgently to tackle the climate crisis and achieve a green future. The IP system can incentivize this.
- The World Intellectual Property Organization leads the work in establishing a balanced and effective international IP system that supports innovation.
- Let’s celebrate all the pioneering inventors and creators who are working to shape a future that is green and from which we will all benefit.
You can find virtual activities at the World Intellectual Property Day Organization.
Here is more from WIPO’s public statement:
Carving a pathway to a green future is a modern-day imperative. We all share in this challenge and each have a role in building a green future. It is a complex and multi-faceted endeavor, but as the well-known naturalist David Attenborough has noted, “as a species, we are expert problem solvers.” We can create a green future.
We have the collective wisdom, ingenuity and creativity to come up with new, more effective ways to shape a low-carbon future. But we must act now!
The 2020 World Intellectual Property campaign puts innovation – and the IP rights that support it – at the heart of efforts to create a green future. Why? Because the choices we make today will shape our tomorrow. The earth is our home. We need to care for it.
The campaign also celebrates the many inspiring inventors and creators around the world who are betting on a green future – the women, men and young people who are working on cleaner alternatives to legacy fossil-fuel-based technologies and better and more sustainable food and natural resource management systems, and who are using the IP system to support their work and its uptake and use in society.
We explore how a balanced and robust IP system can support the emergence of a green economy that works with and not against the earth’s life-support systems.
We look at how the patent system fosters innovation and the development and diffusion of eco-friendly technologies that enable us tackle the climate crisis and build a green future; how design thinking and design rights together support the optimal use of resources and enable designers to invest their time and talent in creating useful, attractive and eco-friendly products for consumers.
