Sharing the Latest News from WIPO to the IP Experts Group of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
February 14, 2022
The WIPO Singapore Office (WSO) had the pleasure of providing an update on WIPO activities to 66 representatives from 15 Member Economies at the 54th meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation’s IP Experts Group (APEC IPEG).
In the briefing, the WSO shared a presentation that highlighted the usage data for WIPO services in 2021, as well as recent initiatives announced by WIPO.
My Peter Willimott, Officer-in-charge of the WSO explained that data from 2021 revealed innovative enterprises and individuals around the world overcame the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic to drive WIPO's IP services for patents, trademarks and designs to record-setting levels.
For example, international patent applications filed viaWIPO’s Patent Cooperation Treaty(PCT), a widely used metric for measuring innovative activity, grew by 0.9% in 2021.
Use of WIPO’s international trademark system (Madrid) for the protection of brands surged by 14.4% in 2021, the fastest year-on-year growth since 2005.
Whilst demand for the protection of industrial designs viathe Hague System for the International Registration of Industrial Designsrebounded after a sharp fall in the previous year. Designs contained in international applications grew by 20.8% in 2021.
During the presentation, details of some of WIPO's new initiatives such as the global awards program to recognize exceptional SMEs using IP, the Young Experts Program, and the range of webinars on Madrid to help brand owners secure trademark protection around the world were promoted.
The activity represents the strong relationship that WIPO has through its office in Singapore with APEC and the IP Experts Group.