World Intellectual Property Day 2020

A Tribute by ABOUNAJA INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Since its establishment in 1967, the World Intellectual Property Organization has determinedly supported and funded countless initiatives to either encourage creativity or to motivate many to innovate in the name of sustainable development and intellectual property. To further the progression of IP awareness, WIPO has also marked the 26th of April as ‘World Intellectual Property Day’, and this year, we want to pay tribute to their cause, despite the world’s current state of uncertainty and gradually overwhelming obstacles.

The 2020 edition of World Intellectual Property Day primarily aims at shedding light on two of the most significant challenges collectively faced by humankind at the same time. On a global scale, instability in climate change and the alarming rate at which global warming is progressing continues to raise concerns and theories of an uncertain future. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has obstructed all aspects of daily life as we know it. And it is likely here to stay for the foreseeable future.

Creation and inventiveness rest as an integral backbone of global Intellectual Property laws. And we live in times where innovation is needed more than ever. In this brief excerpt, we want to highlight how IP plays an integral role in ensuring that we keep sustainability at heart while innovating for a more certain, safer tomorrow.

This year, we choose to look at adversity and how it has brought global communities together. How it has instilled a clearly visible tie of solidarity as international societies unite against and inspire towards the end of these challenges.

Patents Foster Green Innovation

The mere existence of a legitimate patenting system not only encourages innovation but also empowers inventors and scientists to delve into the creation of ‘green’ or eco-friendly technologies that aim at fighting issues such as the climate change crisis. Producing these creations is partially owed to the innovators' ability to legally protect their creations through their respective patenting entities.

Design Rights Encourage Sustainable Creativity

As versatile as the term ‘design’ is, who would have known that every self-declared designer is able to ensure that their creations are safeguarded? Most technologies are able to serve their purpose when they are ‘designed’ to do so. Creative thinking and design rights come together to ensure the responsible use of one’s resources by allowing designers to allocate more time and effort in conceptualizing both functional, efficient, and environmentally friendly designs.

Trademarks Empower Businesses to Experiment with Being Eco-Friendly

In these trying times, an innovator's ability to trademark their unique brand identifiers has further instilled a sense of emergence for the need to grow as a business. On a day like this, innovators should acknowledge that trademarks that belong to businesses built on sustainable principles, will empower them to offer a wider scope of sustainable products and solutions to their consumers.

Intellectual Property Rights and Technological Advancements

Natural resources are increasingly consumed via technologically sustainable methods. Thanks to intellectual property rights such as geographical indications, economies who are dependent on agriculture can adopt plant-breeding rights to claim ownership of a system that works. This also protects and supports a farmer’s ability to cultivate a more resilient and robust crop, while ultimately backing food supply, on a macro scale.

Copyright Laws Protects Writers' Eco-Related Creations

As a hyper-connected global community, we rely on both aspiring and renowned authors, journalists, bloggers, and thought leaders to give us further insight into a vision of a sustainable future. Or even the possibility of it. And we observe how these creators are actively able to earn a living through a globally regulated copyright system. These creators are a key catalyst in the fight against today’s challenges because of their ability to change the narrative on the untold benefits of making more eco-friendly choices on both commercial and personal levels.

Intellectual Property Rights: Gateway to A Sustainable Future

Global sustainability is within reach. The strategic adoption of IP combined with an innovative mindset is key to reaching the goal of securing worldwide sustainability. As an Intellectual Property firm and as independent individuals, we are committed to being conscious when we are making daily choices. Choices as simple as what we choose to invest in, whether in forms of hard-earned money or sparsely available time.

As a socially responsible community, we must realize that our choices collectively affect what products are sold, what type of researches are being conducted, which corporation grows, and how policies and laws change. These factors play an instrumental role in determining our ability to secure a more sustainable tomorrow. For years to come.