WIPO Director General Wraps Up California Visit
May 26, 2023
WIPO Director General Daren Tang concluded a five-day visit to California on May 26, 2023 during which he saw first-hand the strength of the innovation ecosystem across the West Coast of the United States and heard from stakeholders about the challenges they face in their innovative and creative endeavors.
The dialogue - with creators and innovators, entrepreneurs, academics, business executives and representatives of the legal profession in Los Angeles San Francisco and Silicon Valley region - was important in understanding the expectations from high tech entrepreneurs and innovators, as well as the entertainment industry, as to how WIPO can help to find solutions to address these challenges.
In Los Angeles, Mr. Tang met with representatives of Hollywood Studios, including site-visits to NBCUniversal and The Walt Disney Company. In these conversations, Mr. Tang acknowledged the online piracy challenges raised by the Studios and noted that a key factor to building respect for IP is education, preferably already at an early school level, as well as highlighting the stories of the people behind the creative products cherished by many around the world.
Speaking at the Los Angeles Bioscience Ecosystem Summit at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Mr. Tang cited the biotech industry as an example of the critical role that IP plays in translating ground-breaking science to real-world impact and to demonstrate the need for an IP ecosystem that works for people all around the world. He explained that WIPO works to build an inclusive IP ecosystem – “one that engages not just with IP experts and professionals, but also with women, youth, entrepreneurs, startups, small and medium enterprises, researchers, indigenous peoples and other communities, who have been underserved by IP in the past.”
Mr. Tang underscored WIPO’s commitment to working with the global IP community to “write and build the future chapter of the global IP ecosystem so that it can be a force for good in the world, and an enabler for the better, fairer and more sustainable world that we all want to see for our children and their children.”
On the sidelines of the Los Angeles Bioscience Ecosystem Summit, Mr. Tang held a series of meetings with representatives of tech transfer offices, young founders in the field of bioscience, UCLA faculty, selected IP firm representatives, as well as undergraduate and graduate students from around the region.
In these meetings Mr. Tang highlighted that IP can be a force for good in the world by allowing basic research to be transformed into tangible goods that improve people’s lives all around the world. Recalling the critical services that WIPO provides through its IP registration systems, as well as the tailor-made innovation support for WIPO’s Member States, the Director General noted that IP serves as a means to an end and is itself subject to evolution — a fact that WIPO takes into account when, for instance, convening the WIPO Conversations on topics such as artificial intelligence or the Metaverse.
At meetings with start-ups and SMEs from the aerospace, fintech, and medical technology industries, discussions revolved around topics of cutting-edge technology, such as artificial intelligence and 3-D printing and how companies develop comprehensive IP strategies, ranging from patents, trade secrets to trademarks, to protect their intangible assets. Acknowledging the tremendous amount of ingenuity shown by these companies, Mr. Tang explained that IP should be seen as more than a mere property right but a powerful tool for economic growth, as well as a financial asset, which may be used by enterprises to grow their business.
During site-visits to a bioscience incubator, Bakar Labs, and a high-tech entrepreneurship accelerator, SkyDeck, both located at the University of California, Berkeley, as well as California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA, Mr. Tang was impressed by the collaborative and entrepreneurial spirit present and the vibrant innovation ecosystem on campus, including renowned research facilities, a deep network of advisors and support through industry partners.
Mr. Tang was accompanied by Ms. Lisa Jorgenson, Deputy Director General for the Patents and Technology Sector who also serves as WIPO’s first IP and Gender Champion.
In meetings with IP lawyers at the Orange County Intellectual Property Law Association in partnership with the Orange County Bar Association, IP and Technology Section, and with start-up executives in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Director General addressed the audience on global trends in IP filings and a range of WIPO initiatives. These included WIPO’s work on IP enforcement, such as WIPO ALERT, as well as IP and gender and youth — underscoring that IP works for everyone, everywhere and changing the narrative of IP from a pure technical discussion among experts to a powerful tool that brings ideas alive around the world for everyone.