World Intellectual Property Day – April 26, 2020

Carving a pathway to a green future is a modern-day imperative. We all share in this challenge and each have a role in building a green future. It is a complex and multi-faceted endeavor, but as the well-known naturalist David Attenborough has noted, “as a species, we are expert problem solvers.” We can create a green future.

We have the collective wisdom, ingenuity and creativity to come up with new, more effective ways to shape a low-carbon future. But we must act now!

The 2020 World Intellectual Property campaign puts innovation – and the IP rights that support it – at the heart of efforts to create a green future. Why? Because the choices we make today will shape our tomorrow. The earth is our home. We need to care for it.

The campaign also celebrates the many inspiring inventors and creators around the world who are betting on a green future – the women, men and young people who are working on cleaner alternatives to legacy fossil-fuel-based technologies and better and more sustainable food and natural resource management systems, and who are using the IP system to support their work and its uptake and use in society.

We explore how a balanced and robust IP system can support the emergence of a green economy that works with and not against the earth’s life-support systems.

We look at how the patent system fosters innovation and the development and diffusion of eco-friendly technologies that enable us tackle the climate crisis and build a green future; how design thinking and design rights together support the optimal use of resources and enable designers to invest their time and talent in creating useful, attractive and eco-friendly products for consumers.

We consider how trademarks and other identifiers support the emergence and growth of businesses built on principles of environmental sustainability, enabling them to offer a broader range of eco-friendly products and services.

We see how rights, such as geographical indications are encouraging more sustainable natural resource use and how plant-breeding rights. are promoting the development of more resilient crops in support of global food security.

And we observe how creators – who through the copyright system can earn a living from their work – can play a key role in creating a vision of a green future and its untold benefits.

As Einstein once noted, we cannot keep doing the same thing over, and over again and expect different results. If we want different results, we need to be innovative in our approaches, our thinking, and our business models.

Our commitment, the choices we make every day, the products we buy, the research we fund, the companies we support, and the policies and laws we develop, will determine how green our future is. But with innovative thinking and strategic use of IP rights, sustainability is within reach.

Join us in exploring the role that innovation and IP rights play in opening a pathway to a green future. Share your favorite green innovations and tell us how you are going to boost your green credentials.