Visionary innovators: World IP Day, 26 April 2012

Visionary innovators: World IP Day, 26 April 2012

World IP Day 2012 and Visionary Innovators

By Graeme McWilliams, Legal Adviser, Standard Life UK

The Geneva based World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has been celebrating World Intellectual Property Day annually since 2000, and the Convention establishing WIPO originally came into force on 26 April 1970.

World IP Day 2012 is the 12th World IP Day event to be celebrated, and the 42nd anniversary of the WIPO convention and WIPO itself.

WIPO originally set up World IP Day to address the gap between people’s awareness of IP and its relevance to their lives, to raise our awareness of the importance and value of IP, and to encourage us to respect IP rights.

World IP Day 2012 and Visionary Innovators

This year’s World IP Day theme is ‘Visionary Innovators’, as behind every great innovation is a human story. World IP Day celebrates creativity and the invaluable contribution made by such innovators and creatives to the development of our global societies. World IP Day helps us understand how the protection of IP rights promotes creativity and innovation.

Resources and events

WIPO has produced an attention-grabbing poster on its dedicated World IP Day website and some further striking visuals on its Facebook page . There are already three World IP Day events arranged in the UK (one of which I am involved with in Edinburgh), according to WIPO’s Facebook Event World Map , and more will be added as we approach this special day.

Our history

Britain has a long history of innovation and invention. Some famous British innovations and inventions, which many of us could not live without, include the postage stamp, television, cat’s eyes, jet engines, penicillin and radar.

2012

This is also a very important year for British Intellectual Property generally, as we approach the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen in June and the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games from July to September. We also look forward to the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

All of these UK events will have major publicity campaigns, centred on their most valuable asset: the brand. A lot of time and money will have gone into designing and protecting their respective brands and visual identities, by way of the many intellectual property rights available, including copyright, trade marks and, domain names.

Standard Life

Standard Life group understands the importance and value of IP. We repositioned our brand and refreshed our visual identity in 2011, and took steps to protect our new visual identity across the globe.

In our Edinburgh office on Thursday 26th April, I have arranged an in-house IP Update training session with one of our external IP lawyers, and plan to do something similar in our Dublin office later in the year.

Conclusion

World IP Day is an opportunity to bang the drum for Intellectual Property, to remind businesses why they need an IP Policy, and exhort us all to protect our own IP rights and respect those of others.

Have a very happy World IP Day on the 26th!

Graeme McWilliams is Legal Adviser, IP & E-commerce, Standard Life Employee Services Limited, Edinburgh and manages the IP portfolio of Standard Life group in the UK. Graeme is a member of the IP and Technology Committees, and the IP accreditation panel of the Law Society of Scotland, manages the UK in-house legal training programme for Standard Life group, and is a keen supporter of World IP Day. The opinions expressed are personal, and do not reflect the opinions of Standard Life group.