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Out-Law News 2 min. read

Britain snubs World Intellectual Property Day


Global awareness of intellectual property is due to be raised next Wednesday. Official bodies in India will debate database rights; in Kyrgystan they'll run a chess tournament; in Algeria they'll issue a postage stamp; and in Britain, they'll do nothing.

Wednesday 26th April 2006 is World Intellectual Property Day, an annual event organised by the Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). As WIPO Director General Kamil Idris explains, it is "an opportunity to encourage people to think about the role played by intellectual property in everyday life, and about its importance in stimulating and safeguarding innovation and creativity."

The event has been running since 2001. The date was chosen because is marks the anniversary of the entry into force of the Convention establishing WIPO.

General Idris explains: "This year we celebrate the starting point of all intellectual property, the seeds from which all innovations and creative works grow – ideas." The slogan for this year's event – expected to headline events in Belgium, France, Belarus, the Czech Republic and Ethiopia – is "it all starts with an idea".

But there appears to have been a shortage of ideas at the UK's Patent Office.

According to its charter, the Patent Office is tasked with helping to stimulate innovation and raise the international competitiveness of British industry through intellectual property rights. World Intellectual Property Day seems an ideal opportunity to further these goals. However, when asked about what was planned to mark the global event, a spokeswoman replied: "We were going to do something; but now we're not."

No reason was given, although OUT-LAW was told that the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) would be making certain announcements next Wednesday. The Patent Office is under the auspices of the DTI. When asked, a DTI spokeswoman explained that the DTI will be making announcements that day – but they will have nothing to do with intellectual property.

Among the Republic of Korea's events, an essay competition is running for children. Entries should be written after reading a comic book called Copy and Paste: What's Wrong?, published by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Latvia's Patent Office will be opening an exhibition on the theme, Internationally Registered Latvian Trademarks in 2005.

The US Patent and Trademark Office told OUT-LAW that it is not doing anything this year "but hopefully next," it added. However, a non-governmental organisation, the Institute for Policy Innovation, is supporting the day with an event in Washington, DC on What Developing Countries Can Do to Limit and Promote Innovation.

The champion of World Intellectual Property Day is surely Kyrgyzstan. The former Soviet republic's State Agency of Intellectual Property has organised a plethora of events to mark the day in collaboration with Government departments, IP organisations, libraries, educational institutions, publishers, companies and the media.

Kyrgyzstan's population of five million can attend seminars, conferences, enter a competition to design the best poster celebrating the day, watch a ceremonial destruction of counterfeit DVDs, and even enter a World Intellectual Property Day tennis tournament.

Editor's note: OUT-LAW is running a series of intellectual property-related seminars throughout April on Open Source Software. But that's just a coincidence. Truth be told, we didn't know anything about World Intellectual Property Day when planning these events.

To its credit, Own It, a service which offers "free intellectual property advice for London’s creative people" is running an event on Protecting and making money from your IP in an international market next Wednesday to mark World Intellectual Property Day.

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