Frequently Asked Questions: World IP Day

World IP Day is an opportunity to highlight the role that IP rights (patents, trademarks, industrial designs, copyright) play in encouraging innovation and creativity. A balanced IP system recognizes and rewards inventors and creators for their work and ensures that society benefits from their creativity and ingenuity.

IP rights provide the means by which researchers, inventors, businesses, designers, artists and others can legally protect their innovative and creative outputs and secure an economic return from them. But the IP system is no free lunch. Only when a work meets certain established criteria will it qualify for IP protection. A song, or a movie, for example, only qualifies for copyright protection if they are original. Similarly, a technology has to be novel, non-obvious and useful if it is to qualify for a patent. Moreover, to obtain a patent, an inventor is obliged to make details of her invention public so that others can build on the technology.

An effective IP system that balances the interests of inventors and creators with those of society as a whole has proven an effective way to encourage inventors and creators to invest their time, energy and ingenuity into developing new technologies and new forms of creative expression that both improve and enrich our lives.

An environment in which innovation and creativity thrive and which is diverse and inclusive, improves our chances of addressing the major challenges facing humanity, driving human progress, and making our lives healthier, safer, and more comfortable.

World IP Day is celebrated globally. Anyone can take part in the campaign! IP offices, government agencies, universities, law firms, businesses, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, universities, schools, along with thousands of people of all ages and from all corners of the globe, get involved in World IP Day every year.

You can get involved in many ways:

• Spread the word.
  Online: Share your views and join the discussion on social media using the #WorldIPDay hashtag, and follow @WIPO on Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter and @wipo on Instagram. Share World IP Day content and tell us and your followers what you think about the importance of creativity, innovation, IP and this year’s theme on your website or blog.
  Offline: Talk about World IP Day with your friends and colleagues.
• Attend a virtual event. Every year, hundreds of events to celebrate World IP Day are organized around the world – webinars, conferences, national award ceremonies, workshops, and exhibitions. Take your pick. World IP Day is an opportunity for everyone to celebrate innovation and creativity and to learn something new.
• Organize an event. Why not think big and organize your own virtual World IP Day event? Have a look at our list of event ideas for inspiration.

World IP Day is a great opportunity to get people interested in and talking about IP. While WIPO suggests a general theme for World IP Day each year, you are free to decide how best to use World IP Day to make a splash and so it meets the public awareness goals of your own organization.

If you would like to organize your own virtual World IP Day event and are looking for inspiration, have a look at our suggested activities or World IP Day events maps from previous years, available in the World IP Day archives.

• Use our World IP Day suggested activities to promote your event online and offline. For details about what you are allowed to do with these materials, have a look at the answers relating to publicity materials.
• WIPO may also publicize certain events on social media. Be sure to use #WorldIPDay and mention WIPO (@wipo on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter and @wipo on Instagram) when talking about your event.

You can use content from our social media kit to promote World IP Day.