World Intellectual Property Day – April 26, 2018
Powering change: Women in innovation and creativity
Every April 26, we celebrate World Intellectual Property Day to learn about the role that intellectual property rights (patents, trademarks, industrial designs, copyright) play in encouraging innovation and creativity.
This year’s World Intellectual Property Day campaign celebrated the brilliance, ingenuity, curiosity and courage of the women who are driving change in our world and shaping our common future.
Every day women come up with game-changing inventions and life-enhancing creations that transform lives and advance human understanding from astrophysics to nanotechnology and from medicine to artificial intelligence and robotics.
And in the creative sphere, whether in the movies, animation, music, fashion, design, sculpture, dance, literature, art and more, women are re-imagining culture, testing the limits of artistry and creative expression, drawing us into new worlds of experience and understanding.
The important and inspiring contributions of countless women around the globe are powering change in our world. Their “can do” attitude is an inspiration to us all. And their remarkable achievements are an invaluable legacy for young girls today with aspirations to become the inventors and creators of tomorrow.
More than ever before, women are taking up leadership roles and making their voices heard in the science, technology, business and the arts. This is good news. With women and men working together, we strengthen humanity’s hand, and improve our ability to enrich our shared cultural wealth and develop effective solutions to alleviate poverty, boost global health, and safeguard the environment.
The time is ripe to reflect on ways to ensure that increasing numbers of women and girls across the globe engage in innovation and creativity, and why this is so important.
This year’s World Intellectual Property Day celebration is an opportunity to highlight how the intellectual property (IP) system can support innovative and creative women (and indeed everyone) in their quest to bring their amazing ideas to market.
Join the conversation using #worldipday and tell us about the female inventors and creators who are powering change near you!
Get involved!
- Organize an event: Suggested activities
- Post your photos and posters on Facebook
- Send us details of your events for the World IP Day events map
- Join the conversation on social media using hashtag #worldipday
- Download campaign materials from our social media kit
World IP Day message
WIPO Director General Francis Gurry calls on everyone, everywhere, to ensure that we each do everything in our power to increase the full participation of women in innovation and creativity.
Women inventors: where we stand
Latest WIPO figures show highest-ever rate of women named as inventors in international patent applications, but gender gap persists.
Quiz
Quiz time! Find out how much you know about women and intellectual property.
Women powering change
Australian girls score big in tennis
An invention by three Australian schoolgirls has the potential to solve a problem on the world's tennis courts: keeping track of the score in social games.
Women in Arab cinema: an interview with Hend Sabry
What challenges face actresses in the Arab region? And what opportunities might they enjoy? Award-winning Tunisian actress, Hend Sabry, a celebrated star of Arab cinema, offers an insider's view.
Alexandra Dean, director of Bombshell, The Hedy Lamarr Story
Award-winning journalist, director and producer Alexandra Dean talks about her compelling new documentary - the remarkable tale of a Hollywood star whose natural flair for invention helped shape today's communications technology.
The woman who transformed the nursery market
British inventor and entrepreneur Mandy Haberman is a 21st-century mother of invention. She explains how intellectual property has enabled her to develop and expand her company, Haberman Baby.
Biocon's pioneering founder, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw started out as a Master Brewer and now heads up Biocon, India's largest innovation-led biopharmaceutical company. Find out what it takes to establish a multi-billion dollar global business that promises to transform global health.
Women in agricultural research in Africa
Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg, Director, African Women in Agricultural Research (AWARD) highlights the importance of building a robust and efficient agricultural research ecosystem for Africa that is diverse and inclusive.
Women in innovation and creativity speak
Sandra Mjöll Jónsdóttir, CEO of life-sciences company Platome Biotechnology.
Rhona Eastman Jack, seamstress and entrepreneur from Trinidad and Tobago, invented a portable fashion ruler.
Sarah Evans, Founder and CEO of international non-profit Well Aware, funds and implements life-saving water systems.
Faith Maluki, scientist, uses plant breeding techniques to help tea farmers produce better harvests.
Ruth Soetendorp, academic and IP education advocate, teaches IP to communities all over the world.
Heba Khalifa Al-Ghafri, Faeza Abdullah Al-Khatri, and Sharifa Hamad Al-Qutati, Muscat Higher College of Technology, invented hair regrowth product.
Daniela Galindo, social entrepreneur, developed an app boosting literacy and social inclusion.
Mathebe Molise, Founder of Beauty on TApp, runs a company helping small businesses connect with customers in and around their area.
Raquel Fernandez-Dumayas, technology instructor, invented a novel pinch-off tool in use in air-conditioning and refrigeration industries.
Intellectual property and gender
Innovation, creativity and the gender gap
Thanks to women inventors, designers and artists, our lives are healthier, safer, more comfortable and fun. But data show that fewer women than men make use of intellectual property rights. A brief on innovation, creativity and the gender gap.
How to bridge the gender gap in IP
How does the gender gap play out in intellectual property and what are its root causes?
Gender equality: what WIPO is doing
An overview of WIPO initiatives for women in the areas of awareness-raising, capacity building and leadership.
Women’s voices
Reflections on why it is important to encourage women to engage in innovation and creativity.
Publicity materials
- Poster
- Bookmark
- Postcard
- Pictogram
- Animated GIF
All PDF files are print-ready. Additional templates, landscape visuals and editable files are available in our social media kit.
More about World IP Day
In 2000, WIPO's member states designated April 26 – the day on which the WIPO Convention came into force in 1970 – as World IP Day with the aim of increasing general understanding of IP.
Since then, World IP Day has offered a unique opportunity each year to join with others around the globe to consider how IP contributes to the flourishing of music and the arts and to driving the technological innovation that helps shape our world.
Frequently asked questions
Why celebrate World IP Day? What kind of events can I organize? How can I add my event to the map? Answers to 16 frequently asked questions about World IP Day.