This year’s World Intellectual Property Day (April 26) will celebrate green technology and innovation. In 2020 WIPO has decided to take a closer look at green innovation and sustainable technology, under the timely theme Innovate for a Green Future.
“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.
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. 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.
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.
Rights, such as geographical indications are encouraging more sustainable natural resource use and plant-breeding rights are promoting the development of more resilient crops in support of global food security.
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.
In light of the coronavirus pandemic, and the need to keep everyone safe and well, WIPO will not organize any physical events, and encourages the World IP Day community to move celebrations to virtual channels.
