World Intellectual Property Day - 2010
Relatively few decades ago, the world remained vast and largely unknown for most people. Travel was costly and long. Knowledge was paper-based and hard to share. Telephone service was, in many places, non-existent. Outside of large cities, access to foreign culture and the arts was limited.
World Intellectual Property Day - 2010
Message from Francis Gurry
Director General, World Intellectual Property
Organization (WIPO)
Innovation
- Linking the World
Rapid innovation and its
global adoption has transformed our outlook. We are now linked – physically,
intellectually, socially and culturally – in ways that were impossible to
imagine. We can cross continents in a few hours. From almost anywhere on the
planet, we can access information, see and speak to each other, select music,
and take and send photographs, using a device small enough to fit in the palm
of a hand
This universal
connectivity, sustained by the Web and wireless technology, has huge
implications for the future. With the “death of distance”, we are no longer
limited by physical location – and the benefits are legion
Web-based learning frees
intellectual potential in previously isolated communities, helping to reduce
the knowledge gap between nations. Sophisticated video-conferencing techniques
reduce business travel, diminishing our carbon footprint. Mobile telephony,
already used by over half the world’s population, transforms lives and
communities: Solar powered mobiles are helping track disease, run small
businesses, and coordinate disaster relief in areas previously out of reach
Rapid data management and
exchange speed the innovation cycle, facilitating collective innovation and
promoting mutually beneficial collaboration between companies, research
institutions and individuals. At the same time, digital technologies are
enabling like-minded people to create virtual platforms from which to work on
common projects and goals – such as WIPO’s web-based stakeholders’ platform,
aimed at facilitating access to copyrighted content for the estimated 314
million persons with visual and print disabilities world wide
Innovative technologies
are creating a truly global society. The intellectual property system is part
of this linking process. It facilitates the sharing of information – such as
the wealth of technological know-how contained in WIPO’s free data banks. It
provides a framework for trading and disseminating technologies. It offers
incentives to innovate and compete. It helps structure the collaboration needed
to meet the daunting global challenges, such as climate change and spiraling
energy needs, confronting us all
WIPO is dedicated to ensuring that the intellectual property system
continues to serve its most fundamental purpose of encouraging innovation and
creativity; and that the benefits of the system are accessible to all – helping
to bring the world closer