WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY DAY
According to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), World IP Day is a yearly celebration that offers a unique opportunity to join with others around the globe to consider how intellectual property (IP) helps the global arts scene to flourish and how it enables the technological innovation that drives human progress. In 2000, WIPO’s member states designated April 26, the day on which the WIPO Convention came into force in 1970, as World IP Day with the aim of increasing general understanding of IP. World IP Day is an opportunity to highlight the role of IP rights (patents, trademarks, industrial designs, copyright) play in encouraging innovation and creativity. A balanced IP system recognizes and rewards inventors and creators for their work and ensures that society benefits from their creativity and ingenuity. IP rights provide the means by which researchers, inventors, businesses, designers, artists and others can legally protect their innovative and creative outputs and secure an economic return on them. But the IP system is no free lunch. Only when a work meets certain established criteria will it qualify for IP protection. A song, or a movie, for example, only qualifies for copyright protection if they are original. Similarly, a technology has to be novel, non-obvious and useful if it is to qualify for a patent. Moreover, an inventor who wants to obtain a patent must disclose details of her invention public so that others can build on the technology. An effective IP system that balances the interests of inventors and creators with those of society as a whole has proven an effective way to encourage inventors and creators to invest their time, energy and ingenuity into developing new technologies and new forms of creative expression that both improve and enrich our lives. An environment in which innovation and creativity thrive and which is diverse and inclusive, improves our chances of addressing the major challenges facing humanity, driving human progress, and making our lives healthier, safer, and more comfortable. World IP Day is celebrated globally. Anyone can take part in the campaign! IP offices, government agencies, universities, law firms, businesses, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, universities, schools, along with thousands of people from all ages and from all corners of the globe, get involved in World IP Day every year. Therefore, on this day, I hope we are reminded of the important role intellectual property rights play in promoting innovation and creativity; and how valuable it is for young creators and innovators to know more about IP and IP rights. This knowledge enables them to know how best to protect and exploit their works, and in turn share their inventions and arts with the rest of the world.
Bibimeryem SOYUNGULYYEVA,
the 1st year student of the Faculty of the International Law
of the
Institute of International Relations of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan.