Director General Unveils New Projects In Support of IP and Innovation in Chile
October 7, 2022
SANTIAGO - WIPO Director General Daren Tang visited Chile from October 6 – 7, 2022 to better understand Chile’s innovation ecosystem and to announce a range of new projects to bring IP closer to the ground.
In meetings with senior government officials, top industry and innovation stakeholders, young innovators and creators and women entrepreneurs, Mr. Tang welcomed Chile's strong performance within the Global Innovation Index (GII), which saw the country enter the top 50 this year and retain its position as the top GII performer in Latin America.
Drawing on the emergence of unicorns such as Betterfly, Cornershop and NotCo, he also stressed the importance of "building a culture of confidence in innovation", particularly among Chile's youth so that they see "innovating is a joy, that creating is a joy.", and expressed WIPO’s desire for “IP to be part of [their] journey.”
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Strong foundations
In dialogue with Nicolás Grau, Minister of Economy, Development and Tourism, Ximena Fuentes, Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Carolina Gainza, Vice-Minister of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation, the Director General commended Chile's strong institutions, robust research base and growing venture capital investment, which reached almost USD 3billion last year.
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In talks with the Minister of Agriculture, Esteban Valenzue la Van Treek, Mr. Tang discussed the challenges of decentralization to support growth in all parts of Chile, and how to further drive innovation across the country’s agriculture sector, as well as the role IP can play in supporting the branding, marketing and packaging of local products for international markets.
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The vibrancy of the region’s creative economy, and Chile’s role in supporting this growing sector, was a feature of the Director General’s bilateral exchange with the Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage, Julieta Brodsky. The two also discussed the Center of Technological Revolution on Creative Industries, a unique incubation hub for creative tech that he toured in Santiago.
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Moving ahead
A key theme of the visit was how WIPO can help Chile build on these strong foundations and move ahead.
During a breakfast roundtable with innovation stakeholders, Mr. Tang had a detailed exchange on the strengths and challenges faced by the Chilean innovation ecosystem, which was established as far back at the 1980s. The meeting spoke extensively on the specific elements needed to translate research into impact and underscored WIPO's commitment to supporting technology transfer in Chile.
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Participants discussed the important role patent analytics can play in supporting technology transfer offices, how to create company building capabilities within the university system, a need to link the creation of spin-outs to performance metrics within the research sector and how corporate venturing can strengthen Chile's innovation ecosystem and support the movement of research into the market.
Mr. Tang also pledged WIPO's support as Chile builds more inclusive IP and innovation ecosystems.
Addressing an INAPI event on IP and Gender, he pledged to continue to work together to raise IP awareness and break down gender barriers in Chile and beyond, telling attendees, "our goal is not to be a talk shop that operates in far-away Geneva, our mission is to deliver real impact in Chile, across the region and around the world.”
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New projects
To underscore this, the Director General used his visit to announce two new projects under WIPO's COVID-19 assistance package.
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The first will benefit oregano farmers from Putre, in the far north of the country, hit badly by the pandemic. Many producers are older adults who found themselves shielding or unable to work in recent years. While mobility restrictions reduced commercial opportunities for growers, as many local fairs - part of the commercial lifeblood of the region – were cancelled.
In response, WIPO will make its expertise available to help strengthen the oregano's brand, improve marketing and packaging and drive business growth across the Arica region. In this way, the project will help support livelihoods, sustain traditional skills and create opportunities for a new generation of Putre farmers to bring their heritage to the world.
The second project is “Hilando Libertad” or weaving freedom. It will see WIPO join INAPI and partners on the ground to support a rehabilitation initiative for male prisoners using local wool from the Patagonia region, in the very south of the country, to manufacture clothing and other items to support their families.
The pandemic forced the local wool production plant to close its doors and reduced retail opportunities. WIPO's support will center on IP strategy and the potential to protect and commercialize the handmade products.
Launching the schemes, Mr. Tang said, "these projects will help us build a more inclusive IP system that reaches out to people not just in Santiago but people all over Chile.”
During his visit, the Director General also signed an agreement with his INAPI counterpart, Loreto Bresky, to create a National IP Training Institution in the country, as well as a Memorandum of Understanding with the Andrés Bello Diplomatic Academy to develop a new course on IP for diplomats and trade negotiators.
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Concluding his two-day visit, the Director General stressed to an audience of delegates and officials that the country, "has the foundations institutionally and the mindset to take off and build the next chapter of its innovation ecosystem".