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WIPO Director General Daren Tang: Overcoming Common Challenges Through Open Innovation

December 5, 2020

On December 3-4, 2020, the 10th Business of IP Asia Forum was held in Hong Kong SAR of China. WIPO Director General Daren Tang delivered a congratulatory message via video. Themed on Open Innovation: Driving Collaboration in Times of Change, the 10th Business of IP (BIP) Asia Forum was jointly organized by the HKSAR Government, Hong Kong Trade Development Council and Hong Kong Design Centre. Mrs. Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, the Chief Executive, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, Dr. Shen Changyu, Commissioner, China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), Ms. Margaret Fong, Executive Director, Hong Kong Trade Development Council attended and addressed the forum.

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(Photo: WIPO)

Mr. Tang's message is as follows:

It is my honor and pleasure to address the Business of IP Asia Forum.  This forum is now in its 10th edition, successfully bringing together IP professionals and business leaders from all over the world to discuss the latest development in IP that are interesting to enterprises, network, and explore opportunities to collaborate.  With its location at the heart of the Greater Bay Area, Hong Kong is well placed to organize this event.  WIPO is part of being a partner of the forum from its early days and we are pleased that the country and the region have been strong believers in the power of innovation to drive business and economic growth.

The start of innovation this century is a story of increasingly globalized innovation, with Asia driving much of this growth.  In 2018, Asia accounted for two thirds of all patent, trademark and industrial design applications filed worldwide.  This shows a vibrancy and dynamism of the Asian innovation ecosystem.  And as the first DG of WIPO to come from Asia, it's been my pleasure and privilege to have had the chance to witness and participate in this development firsthand.

The keynote session of this year's forum is dedicated to open innovation.  This is timely and topical.  In the face of the pandemic, the world needs more, not less innovation.  But at the same time the complexities facing us cannot be solved by one enterprise or one country alone.  Open innovation which puts collaboration and sharing at the heart of innovative activity is key to pulling our resources together to overcome the common challenges that we face.  In fact, collaboration through open innovations is becoming widespread in a variety of areas including software, healthcare, pharmaceutical, food production, smart cities. The list goes on.  From Samsung accelerators to Lego ideas, firms are adopting open innovation models as a core component in their business strategies.  And startups which are naturally aligning to the sense of an innovation community are also active in this area, as can be seen from the Startmeup.HK initiatives.

Openness and collaboration, however, also need to be managed in order to maintain the incentive to engage in fast and commercialized innovation.  This is where IP comes in to allow enterprises and partners to find the right boundaries and relationships to innovate collaboratively.  IP can also serve other needs, for example, by leveling the playing field for scaleups and SMEs which tend to develop niche technologies and in general require collaboration to commercialize their inventions.

Open innovation shows that small is agile and can be beautiful and in the future unicorns of tomorrow can be supported as they begin their journey today.  One of the key plans of WIPO’s future work will be to make WIPO work better for businesses, especially startups, SMEs, and scaleups, through our tools and services.  I believe that this is a goal that is very much aligning with business for IP’s vision.

In its 10 years of existence, the Business for IP Asia Forum has become a leading platform in Asia, for businesses and policymakers alike who believe in the potential of IP and have made their potential become reality.  WIPO is proud to have been able to accompany the forum in this development and we look forward to continuing for full cooperation in this area.

Let me end by wishing all of you a successful event. Thank you very much.

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