World Intellectual Property Rights Day being marked today

The World Intellectual Property Day is being celebrated across the world, including in Nepal, today around the theme- ‘Women and IP: Accelerating innovation and creativity.’ In 2023, we celebrate the “can do” attitude of women inventors, creators and entrepreneurs around the world and their ground-breaking work, the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) said in its website.

According to WIPO, women in all regions are shaping the world through their imagination, ingenuity and hard work, but often face significant challenges in accessing the knowledge, skills, resources and support they need to thrive. “Women bring new perspectives and talents to the table. But there is a problem. Too few women are participating in the intellectual property (IP) system.

That means too few women are benefitting from IP.” Stating that when women lose out, we all lose out, WIPO underscored the need to encourage more women to use the IP system to protect and add value to their work so as to develop more and better technologies that work for everyone, to establish more thriving woman-led businesses and to support economic recovery and build back better. Nepal is a member of the WIPO and the Day is being celebrated by organising various programmes today.

World Intellectual Property Day is observed annually on April 26. The event was established by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 2000 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 economies and 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 entered into force in 1970, it is stated.