Posts Tagged: "World IP Day"

This week in Washington IP news, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and others celebrate World Intellectual Property Day with multiple events. A House subcommittee holds a hearing overseeing recent developments at the USPTO. The Senate is also in session as it discusses the two new finalized rules from the Small Business Administration on expanding capital access to small businesses.

It is once again World IP Day, on which the global intellectual property (IP) community celebrates IP and innovation, as well as the day that the Convention establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) came into force (April 26, 1970). World IP Day was first observed in 2000 in an effort by WIPO to raise awareness of the importance IP plays in fostering innovation and creativity. This year, WIPO has chosen to focus on the theme of “IP and Youth: Innovating for a Better Future,” spotlighting young entrepreneurs and innovators across the globe. There’s a youth video competition, a World IP Day Youth Gallery, and dozens of events taking place worldwide throughout the week.

In celebration of last month’s World IP Day, Senate Judiciary Committee Intellectual Property Subcommittee Chairman Patrick Leahy expressed his support for a determined effort to encourage more individuals and small companies across this country to invent new technologies and products. He also noted the need for the U.S. patent system to incentivize this effort. The Alliance of U.S. Startups and Inventors for Jobs (USIJ) strongly supports Chairman Leahy’s important objective of empowering startups and inventors, and we frankly think it has been underappreciated for many years…. However, we are concerned with one point raised by Senator Leahy without providing much detail – that the prior Administration took “steps to undermine the Leahy-Smith Act.”

“Property rights are not just good for the economy, they save lives”, Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform said, speaking at Innovating the Future: Celebrating 2021 World IP Day, sponsored by the Property Rights Alliance. Norquist would go on to conclude his brief opening remarks by lamenting, “the damage that would be done if some of the critics of intellectual property have their way.” Norquist was implicitly referring to an IP waiver proposal by South Africa and India, which would allow nations to ignore patent rights relating to COVID-19 related innovations, particularly vaccines. This waiver of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is a truly bad idea, and one addressed head on by Andrei Iancu, senior adviser to the Renewing America Innovation Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and former Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

World IP Day may not have fully captured the public imagination yet, but it is increasingly an important moment to reflect on a topic that impacts all of our lives in more ways than are widely recognized. In Ireland for example, like many other modern open economies, IP plays a significant role in how we participate in the global marketplace. In addition, it is the intrinsic intangible nature of IP that allows us to play a role that is many times greater than our relative size would seem to allow. For example, in 2019, the European Patent Office (EPO) and European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) jointly published a report on “Intellectual property rights intensive industries and economic performance in the European Union”. According to that report, IP rights (IPR) intensive industries account for 45% of GDP, on average, across the EU. In Ireland, however, the share attributed these industries was 65% of GDP—a good 20 points ahead of the next highest.

Starting a business is steeped with uncertainty, especially during a global pandemic. Small business owners are constantly running through the scenarios: Can I make payroll? Will I recoup my investment? Can I change my community for the better? There are plenty of systems at play that tell them, “No.” It’s too difficult to get a loan; the commercial real estate market is too competitive; advertising and marketing is too expensive. Even so, there’s one system that sings a resounding, “Yes!” That’s America’s intellectual property system.

Discussion around intellectual property strategies for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) often focus chiefly on patent and trademarks. But the benefits of copyright to a small business should not be underestimated. Copyrights protect the expression of ideas in works that are tangible. Copyrightable subject matter is very broad—all “original works of authorship, fixed in a tangible medium” are protected immediately from creation. The U.S. Copyright Office lists these categories as subject to copyright protection: literary works, musical works, performing arts, visual arts, other digital content (including computer software code), motion pictures, photographs, sound recordings, and architectural works. 17 U.S.C. Section 102.

Today is World Intellectual Property Day; the theme for the 21st annual celebration raising awareness for the role of various forms of IP in supporting strong economies is “IP & SMEs: Taking Your Ideas to Market.” Events all over the world are planned for this week to highlight the crucial role that small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play in commercializing intellectual properties, using the protections afforded by IP to translate engineered improvements and creative expression from the minds of inventors into marketable products that are commercialized so the whole world can benefit and enjoy.

Never more than in this past year has reflection and introspection been important to cope with the isolation and stress brought by a raging pandemic. As I look back at World IP Day last year, I immediately recognize how much we have learned and evolved since the beginning of this aggressive and deadly disease. In little more than a year, the outlook is significantly more positive: vaccines are being rolled out in vast quantities, their effect in curbing infections and deaths starts to be recognized, the economy is showing signs of recovery, schools are reopening and there is finally more optimism.

As we celebrate World IP Day this week, the theme of which is “IP and SMEs [small and medium enterprises]”, we must remember that – from its founding – the United States’ economic success has depended on fostering an environment where innovators and entrepreneurs can dream big and achieve success. But that success is now at risk because our nation is lagging behind others in ensuring that everyone, everywhere, can access the most important tool of our time – the internet.

Today, for the 20th year in a row, we celebrate World IP Day. Today also marks the 80th birthday (after mine, another notable quarantine birthday) of a composer, songwriter, and record producer that has changed the history of music: Giorgio Moroder. Nicknamed the “Father of Disco”, he pioneered electronic music, produced numerous world hits – including some of Donna Summer’s major successes – and later composed film screenplays and scores (and won several awards for that work, including three Oscars). More recently, Moroder, a native of Ortisei, Italy, was honored with and contributed to a song named after him by the acclaimed EDM duo, Daft Punk. Similarly to Moroder, artists and creatives push the boundaries of ingenuity, create worlds for us to get lost in, imagine digital and analog alternative realities to soothe our senses and soul, and blur the lines between art, entertainment and technology. Innovators in all fields question the status quo and pursue a vision in creative art, technology, medicine, business, and all other areas of human knowledge. And while they do so, they touch many lives and, through their collective contribution, impact society as a whole. As our lives have been turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic, we recognize more than ever that investing in creativity, in innovation, and in the visionaries has allowed us as a society to cope and fight back with unprecedented tools.

It’s World IP Day! This year, the day will not be celebrated in the traditional fashion; there will be none of the usual panels, receptions, gatherings or educational events that are organized annually to commemorate the holiday, which was launched in 2000 by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). While some remote panels will be held in lieu of the traditional affairs, there are decidedly fewer organizations participating this year. Here are some of the virtual events, reports and statements focusing on World IP Day 2020— the official theme of which is, “Innovate for a Green Future.”

Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committeee’s Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), said last week that the subcommittee will  “explore increasing criminal penalties and opportunities for stepped up intellectual property enforcement to prevent counterfeiting and piracy during a hearing titled “World Intellectual Property Day 2019: The Role of Intellectual Property in Sports and Public Safety.” The hearing followed from the theme of this year’s World IP Day, “Reach for Gold: IP and Sports.” The sports industry witnesses and U.S. Senators in attendance emphasized that strong intellectual property frameworks, including enforcement, are critical to support successful global economies and provide health and safety protections for consumers of all ages, in addition to supporting wages for an effective work force.

This week in Other Barks & Bites, governments and intellectual property offices around the world celebrate World IP Day; the U.S. Trade Representative releases its most recent Notorious Markets List; TiVo subsidiary Rovi files another patent suit against licensing holdout Comcast; Amazon ramps up program for connecting sellers with lawyers for patent infringement issues; the USPTO seeks public comments on gathering data for SUCCESS Act study; music industry groups submit letter to Copyright Office regarding Mechanical Licensing Collective membership; and weak China data center sales sends Intel stock tumbling by 7.5 percent.