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Celebrate World Intellectual Property Day

ipday_2009Today is World Intellectual Property Day and this year WIPO’s focus is on promoting green innovation [1] as the key to a secure future.

According to WIPO, most people are aware of intellectual property (IP) but many still view patents, copyrights and trademarks as business or legal concepts with little to no relevance to their own lives. To address this gap, WIPO’s Member States decided in 2000 to designate an annual World Intellectual Property Day. They chose April 26, the date on which the Convention establishing WIPO originally entered into force in 1970.

Each year, WIPO and its Member States celebrate World Intellectual Property Day with activities, events and campaigns [2].  These are an attempt to increase public understanding of what 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.

WIPO issues a message from the Director General each year, broadcasts a short publicity spot on international television channels, and dispatches posters and other promotional materials to IP offices and organizations.   Reports of activities organized by Member States are published on this site.

The aims of World IP Day are:

WIPO’s World IP Day Web Gallery [3] displays some good examples (despite some overuse of the tired light bulb) of posters and publicity materials from around the world.  The April 2009 issue of WIPO Magazine [4] is available for download in PDF [5] format.