Intellectual property (IP) tools that underpin the global innovation ecosystem will play a critical role in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the U.N. roadmap for a better and more sustainable future, participants heard at an SDG conference co-sponsored by WIPO and Portugal.
Women account for only around one in five designers behind the look and feel of products from simple packaging to mobile phones and automotive exteriors, according to new WIPO data released on World Intellectual Property Day, underlining the need to ramp up efforts to bridge a “gender gap” in intellectual property (IP)-backed innovation.
Innovators around the world have filed thousands of patent applications for new technologies to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, with the vast majority of the envisioned products related to therapies to help stricken patients, a new WIPO report shows.
Demand for patent protection continued to grow in 2022, with innovators in China, the United States, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Germany leading in filings under WIPO’s Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) which simplifies the process of seeking patent protection in multiple countries.
WIPO has opened the 2023 edition of its Global Awards program, seeking small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) candidates from around the world that use intellectual property (IP)-backed innovation and creativity in an exceptional manner to achieve business goals and improve society.