IP of Steve Jobs on Display at WIPO

Steve Jobs exhibit at the USPTO, which opened 11/16/2011.

An exhibition showing the intellectual property behind the innovations of Steve Jobs opens to the public at WIPO today and will run through to World Intellectual Property Day on April 26, 2012. The exhibition ties in with this year’s World Intellectual Property Day theme – Visionary Innovators.

“A visionary innovator is measured by the extent of transformation that their innovation achieves in society and the economy,” said WIPO Director General Francis Gurry. “Steve Jobs certainly had vision – his ambition to make digital technology simple and accessible gave rise to a new paradigm for the delivery of entertainment.”

The exhibition – The Patents and Trademarks of Steve Jobs: Art and Technology that Changed the World is located in the atrium of the new WIPO building in Geneva, Switzerland, and is open to the public from 9.00am through 6pm. It features over 300 of the patents that bear Steve Jobs name along with many of Apple’s trademarks. The exhibition is co-organized by WIPO and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

The USPTO exhibt in the atrium of the Madison Building.

This WIPO exhibit calls to memory a similar USPTO exhibit honoring Steve Jobs shortly after his untimely death.  In tribute to the tremendous influence of Steve Jobs, the USPTO showcased The Patents and Trademarks of Steve Jobs: Art and Technology that Changed the World.  The free exhibit opened to the public on November 16 at the USPTO’s campus in Alexandria, Virginia, located in the atrium of the Madison Building.

“This exhibit commemorates the far-reaching impact of Steve Jobs’ entrepreneurship and innovation on our daily lives,” said Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO David Kappos. “His patents and trademarks provide a striking example of the importance intellectual property plays in the global marketplace.”

The USPTO exhibit features hundreds of the patents that bear the name of the iconic innovator along with many of the trademarks that have given Apple its instantly recognizable identity around the world. The display gives insight into the visionary commitment Jobs gave to each of the products and designs he influenced during his time with Apple, the company he co-founded at the age of 21 with his friend and fellow computer enthusiast Steve Wozniak.

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About World IP Day 2012

The theme of the World IP Day celebration this year, which takes place on April 26, 2012, is honoring visionary innovators.  WIPO explains:

Behind every great innovation, either artistic or technological, is a human story – a tale in which new pathways open as a result of the curiosity, insight or determination of individuals.

The Wright Brothers’ boyhood fascination with flight leads to a flying machine and travel by air. Louis Pasteur’s inquisitive mind advances the science of disease prevention. Tu Youyou’s dogged analysis of herbal remedies results in a malaria treatment that saves millions of lives. Steve Jobs’ ambition to make digital technology simple and accessible to everyone gives rise to personal computing and – three decades on – a new paradigm for the delivery of entertainment.

The list of visionary innovators is long. It is a catalogue of human ingenuity and creativity. It includes the many artists, writers and musicians who changed the way we see and hear things: Rembrandt and Turner, Picasso and Kandinski, each reshaping our perceptions of light, shape and form; Chekhov and Tagore, Neruda and Mafouz, their writing giving new insights into the human experience; Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, Hendrix and Rostropovich – musicians who challenge the status-quo, and endure.

WIPO invites everyone to visit the World Intellectual Property Day page on Facebook to share your thoughts about the visionary innovators that inspire you. Specifically WIPO is encouraging you to identify: