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July 25, 2022
WIPO Director General Calls on WIPO Assembly Delegates to Transform IP into a Powerful Catalyst for Growth and Development.
- Hundreds of delegates from WIPO’s 193 Member States joined the July 14-22 WIPO Assemblies to negotiate the future of the global intellectual property (IP) ecosystem and WIPO’s activities in promoting the economic, social and cultural development of all countries.
Photo: Snapshot taken during the Sixty-Third Series of Meetings of the Assemblies of the WIPO Member States, which took place in Geneva, Switzerland, from July 14-22, 2022. Image provided by & Copyright © WIPO. Photo: Pierre Albouy.
Photo: Delegates at the Opening of the WIPO Assemblies 2022. The Sixty-Third Series of Meetings of the Assemblies of WIPO Member States took place in Geneva, Switzerland, from July 14-22, 2022. Image provided by & Copyright © WIPO. Photo: Pierre Albouy.
Geneva, July 23, 2022: WIPO Director General Daren Tang opened the WIPO Assemblies with a call for delegates to keep working to transform intellectual property (IP) into a powerful catalyst for jobs, investments, business growth, and economic development.
Some 900 delegates from WIPO’s 193 Member States registered for in-person participation at the July 14-22, 2022, Meetings of the Assemblies of the Member States of WIPO. It was the most significant number of registrants for a WIPO Assemblies meeting since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
“The invasion of Ukraine. Global inflation. Disruptions to food and energy supply chains. Our global situation remains extremely challenging. But despite these challenges, we cannot look back or stop our work of building the future of the global IP ecosystem,” said Director General Tang in welcoming the delegates.
“We as the global IP community must continue being fully committed to transforming IP from a technical vertical of interest only to specialists into a powerful catalyst for jobs, investments, and development that supports innovators and creators everywhere.”
Cabo Verde Prime Minister José Ulisses Correia e Silva and Colombia President Iván Duque joined Mr. Tang in welcoming delegates to the WIPO Assemblies.
Later, in the meetings, delegates considered the work of WIPO against the backdrop of solid growth in IP and innovation-related activities, as well as the increasing globalization of IP.
The Director General cited continued growth in IP filings, with international patent, trademark, and design applications filed via WIPO reaching record levels in 2021.
“IP continues to move from the periphery to the center, as businesses and economies use the crisis as an opportunity to reimagine, restructure and rebuild, using innovation and creativity as engines of growth,” Mr. Tang said.
Mr. Tang also noted WIPO’s strong financial position, with a surplus of nearly 245 million Swiss Francs for the 2020/21 biennium. “This puts us in a good position to invest these surpluses into capabilities, tools, and projects to continue supporting you strongly, even as the overall financial and macro-economic environment remains volatile and challenging,” he said.
On Tuesday, July 19, WIPO presented the first round of five winners of its new Global Awards program, recognizing exceptional enterprises and individuals using intellectual property to impact home and abroad positively.
A group of seven eminent jurors worldwide selected the winners from 272 submissions spanning 62 countries. The 2022 Global Awards focused on small and medium-sized enterprises, which constitute the backbone of the worldwide economy. The Global Awards program in subsequent years will vary and concentrate on different groups, including youth and women.
In his address, Mr. Tang gave delegates an overview of developments of the Organization’s new Medium-Term Strategic Plan 2022-26, which Member States had endorsed during the 2021 WIPO Assemblies.
“Our focus since then has been simple and single-minded - to translate them into concrete plans and actions to deliver the results and impact that you expect,” Mr. Tang told delegates.
He said that work had advanced in four key areas: Demystifying IP for people everywhere through new ways of engagement; bringing the global IP community together to share ideas, shape practices, and solve global challenges; providing services, data and knowledge to help business owners and policy-makers; and delivering impactful and concrete projects on the ground that allow innovators and creators to use IP for growth.
“Whatever our challenges and difficulties, the global IP community can and should draw on the dynamism, energy, and optimism of the innovators and creators that we support and continue on the transformation journey that we have started together,” Mr. Tang said in concluding his remarks.
Tatiana Molcean, Moldova’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva, chaired the WIPO General Assembly.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is the global forum for intellectual property policy, services, information, and cooperation. A specialized agency of the United Nations, WIPO assists its 193 member states in developing a balanced international IP legal framework to meet society’s evolving needs. It provides business services for obtaining IP rights in multiple countries and resolving disputes. It delivers capacity-building programs to help developing countries benefit from using IP. And it offers free access to unique knowledge banks of IP information.
Source: WIPO
|GlobalGiants.Com|
— The editor is a WIPO Academy alumnus.
The WIPO Assemblies 2022 just concluded
— World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) (@WIPO) July 22, 2022
Thanks to all who participated in person and virtually, forging the future of innovation and creativity 🙌
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Edited & Posted by the Editor | 2:23 AM | Link to this Post
