Innovation technologies for an interlinked and global society
Monday, 26 April 2010
Belal Ahmed
WORLD Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and its member states celebrate World Intellectual Property Day with activities, events and campaigns, each year. These seek to increase public understanding of what intellectual property (IP) really means, and to demonstrate how the IP system fosters not only music, arts and entertainments, but also all the products and technological innovations that help to shape our world.
Most people are aware of IP -- of copyright, patents, industrial designs and trademarks. But many still view these as business or legal concepts with little relevance to their own lives. Member states of the WPO decided in 2000 to designate an annual World Intellectual Property Day, in order to address this gap.
April 26, the date on which the Convention establishing WIPO originally entered into force in 1970, was chosen for the purpose.
The aims of World IP Day include, among others, the following:
l to raise awareness of how patents, copyright, trademarks and designs impact on daily life;
l to increase understanding of how protecting IP rights helps promote creativity and innovation;
l to celebrate creativity, and the contribution made by creators and innovators to the development of societies across the globe; and,
l to encourage respect for the IP rights of others.
This year's World Intellectual Property Day on April 26, 2010, marks also WIPO's 40th anniversary. It focuses on how innovation technologies have created an interlinked and global society.
A range of activities will be organised this year, like the previous ones, in member countries of the WIPO to raise public awareness about the role of IP in daily life, and to celebrate the invaluable contributions made by innovators and creators across the globe.
The system is a key part of the process by which innovation is linking the world. It facilitates the sharing of technological information, ensuring that vital know-how and ingenuity can be shared with other solution-seekers and can provide a framework for trading and disseminating technologies.
The IP system also helps to structure the collaboration needed to meet the daunting global challenges confronting the world, such as climate change, food security, and access to health care.
In his message to mark the day, WIPO Director General Francis Gurry has highlighted the role of the IP system in the development and diffusion of these technologies. For example, thanks to the incentives inherent in the IP system, increasing numbers of people across the globe, including those in previously isolated communities, have access to advanced information and communication technologies. These facilitate access to wide-ranging sources of information and services that are transforming and enhancing the lives of millions.
As the WIPO marks the 10th World Intellectual Property Day, it is also celebrating the 40th anniversary of the entry into force of the Convention, establishing it. This Convention was crafted during a five-week-long conference of BIRPI member states (BIRPI is WIPO's predecessor organization - the acronym stands for Bureaux internationaux réunis pour la protection de la propriété intellectuelle) in Stockholm in 1967.
The agreement reached at that time, and distilled into the text of the Convention, not only established WIPO but also revised the Organization's two key treaties - the 1883 Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (then with 77 members, now 173); and the 1886 Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (then with 58 members, now 164). It also modified five special agreements established under the Paris Convention, mainly dealing with the registration and classification of marks, registration of industrial designs, and the protection of appellations of origin.
In the last 40 years, the six original treaties managed by BIRPI have grown in number, in tandem with a changing technological landscape, and now count 24, including the WIPO Convention. The organization's member states currently stand at 184.
Some may raise questions here about why Bangladesh, being one of the low income countries, should care about protecting intellectual property rights (IPR). IP rights involve some legal mechanisms - copyrights, patents and trademarks. These are aimed at ensuring that the products that consumers or users buy are genuine. There is no denying that dangerous and defective counterfeit products put the lives of consumers at risk.
In this backdrop, a strong IPR system ensures that inventors and innovators are rewarded for their ideas. IPR protections help to foster an environment in which creative and innovative industries can thrive and contribute to economic development world-wide.
An increasing share of global economic output is generated by services in today's world. Many of such services depend on new and evolving technologies. Inventors, creators, and other risk-takers play a critical role in this economic progress. Therefore, the protection of IP rights is necessary to ensure that the advances that result from their efforts are rewarded and valued. Progress in nanotechnology, information technology, and clean energy fosters economic development and improves standards of living world-wide.
Intellectual property rights just not only protect inventors or large corporations but also local entrepreneurs and artists. In nearly all of Bangladesh's markets, the illegal sale of stolen music and films is a troubling indicator of the scale of the IPR protection challenge. Developing countries like Bangladesh too often assume that such rights only benefit first world nations. But this perspective tends to unfairly discount indigenous capacity for innovation. It is true that the World Trade Organization's TRIPS agreement has granted less developed countries some exemptions from international IPR standards until 2013. For pharmaceutical patents, the deadline is December, 2016.
But relying upon these temporary "exemptions" is a choice fraught with risks. An economy built on weak IPR foundations is one in which the abuse of related foreign and domestic property rights occurs hand-in-hand. Any country seeking free-trade agreements cannot ignore today's work to ensure meeting future obligations to protect the rights relating to IP. The human potential to create and innovate is a boundless world-wide resource.
All concerned should therefore appreciate that clear rules and strong enforcement of IPR allows countries to sustain economic development and to build recognisable and respected brands world-wide. Innovators, inventors and artists of many countries like Bangladesh have proven themselves worthy of the highest awards and recognition world wide. For them, it is time for putting in place a befitting domestic IPR mechanism in such countries to grant them the same honour.
WORLD Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and its member states celebrate World Intellectual Property Day with activities, events and campaigns, each year. These seek to increase public understanding of what intellectual property (IP) really means, and to demonstrate how the IP system fosters not only music, arts and entertainments, but also all the products and technological innovations that help to shape our world.
Most people are aware of IP -- of copyright, patents, industrial designs and trademarks. But many still view these as business or legal concepts with little relevance to their own lives. Member states of the WPO decided in 2000 to designate an annual World Intellectual Property Day, in order to address this gap.
April 26, the date on which the Convention establishing WIPO originally entered into force in 1970, was chosen for the purpose.
The aims of World IP Day include, among others, the following:
l to raise awareness of how patents, copyright, trademarks and designs impact on daily life;
l to increase understanding of how protecting IP rights helps promote creativity and innovation;
l to celebrate creativity, and the contribution made by creators and innovators to the development of societies across the globe; and,
l to encourage respect for the IP rights of others.
This year's World Intellectual Property Day on April 26, 2010, marks also WIPO's 40th anniversary. It focuses on how innovation technologies have created an interlinked and global society.
A range of activities will be organised this year, like the previous ones, in member countries of the WIPO to raise public awareness about the role of IP in daily life, and to celebrate the invaluable contributions made by innovators and creators across the globe.
The system is a key part of the process by which innovation is linking the world. It facilitates the sharing of technological information, ensuring that vital know-how and ingenuity can be shared with other solution-seekers and can provide a framework for trading and disseminating technologies.
The IP system also helps to structure the collaboration needed to meet the daunting global challenges confronting the world, such as climate change, food security, and access to health care.
In his message to mark the day, WIPO Director General Francis Gurry has highlighted the role of the IP system in the development and diffusion of these technologies. For example, thanks to the incentives inherent in the IP system, increasing numbers of people across the globe, including those in previously isolated communities, have access to advanced information and communication technologies. These facilitate access to wide-ranging sources of information and services that are transforming and enhancing the lives of millions.
As the WIPO marks the 10th World Intellectual Property Day, it is also celebrating the 40th anniversary of the entry into force of the Convention, establishing it. This Convention was crafted during a five-week-long conference of BIRPI member states (BIRPI is WIPO's predecessor organization - the acronym stands for Bureaux internationaux réunis pour la protection de la propriété intellectuelle) in Stockholm in 1967.
The agreement reached at that time, and distilled into the text of the Convention, not only established WIPO but also revised the Organization's two key treaties - the 1883 Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (then with 77 members, now 173); and the 1886 Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (then with 58 members, now 164). It also modified five special agreements established under the Paris Convention, mainly dealing with the registration and classification of marks, registration of industrial designs, and the protection of appellations of origin.
In the last 40 years, the six original treaties managed by BIRPI have grown in number, in tandem with a changing technological landscape, and now count 24, including the WIPO Convention. The organization's member states currently stand at 184.
Some may raise questions here about why Bangladesh, being one of the low income countries, should care about protecting intellectual property rights (IPR). IP rights involve some legal mechanisms - copyrights, patents and trademarks. These are aimed at ensuring that the products that consumers or users buy are genuine. There is no denying that dangerous and defective counterfeit products put the lives of consumers at risk.
In this backdrop, a strong IPR system ensures that inventors and innovators are rewarded for their ideas. IPR protections help to foster an environment in which creative and innovative industries can thrive and contribute to economic development world-wide.
An increasing share of global economic output is generated by services in today's world. Many of such services depend on new and evolving technologies. Inventors, creators, and other risk-takers play a critical role in this economic progress. Therefore, the protection of IP rights is necessary to ensure that the advances that result from their efforts are rewarded and valued. Progress in nanotechnology, information technology, and clean energy fosters economic development and improves standards of living world-wide.
Intellectual property rights just not only protect inventors or large corporations but also local entrepreneurs and artists. In nearly all of Bangladesh's markets, the illegal sale of stolen music and films is a troubling indicator of the scale of the IPR protection challenge. Developing countries like Bangladesh too often assume that such rights only benefit first world nations. But this perspective tends to unfairly discount indigenous capacity for innovation. It is true that the World Trade Organization's TRIPS agreement has granted less developed countries some exemptions from international IPR standards until 2013. For pharmaceutical patents, the deadline is December, 2016.
But relying upon these temporary "exemptions" is a choice fraught with risks. An economy built on weak IPR foundations is one in which the abuse of related foreign and domestic property rights occurs hand-in-hand. Any country seeking free-trade agreements cannot ignore today's work to ensure meeting future obligations to protect the rights relating to IP. The human potential to create and innovate is a boundless world-wide resource.
All concerned should therefore appreciate that clear rules and strong enforcement of IPR allows countries to sustain economic development and to build recognisable and respected brands world-wide. Innovators, inventors and artists of many countries like Bangladesh have proven themselves worthy of the highest awards and recognition world wide. For them, it is time for putting in place a befitting domestic IPR mechanism in such countries to grant them the same honour.