World Intellectual Property Day is observed annually on April 26. It was first held in 2000, by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to ‘raise awareness of how patents, copyright, trademarks and designs impact on daily life’ and ‘to celebrate creativity, and the contribution made by creators and innovators to the development of societies across the globe’.
April 26 was chosen as the date for World Intellectual Property Day because it coincides with the date on which the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization came into force in 1970.
This year, we’ll explore how innovation makes our lives healthier, safer, and more comfortable, turning problems into progress. We’ll look at how the intellectual property system supports innovation by attracting investment, rewarding creators, encouraging them to develop ideas, and ensure that their new knowledge is freely available so that tomorrow’s innovators can build on today’s new technology.
Every day, ordinary people are producing extraordinary new things to change the world for the better.
Their innovations take myriad forms, from the mundane to the seemingly miraculous: A billboard in Peru that harvests water from the air, supplying the local community with clean drinking water, a mobile money transfer and micro financing service from Kenya, renewable energy solutions that power fridges in rural India; a grapheme battery from China that charges a mobile phone in minutes; cutting-edge technologies from the Russian Federation to help people with disabilities, perform everyday tasks.
From new medicines and materials to improved crop varieties and communications, innovation is making our lives more comfortable.
=Innovation is a human force that knows no limits.
- Bobby G. Boteju