Celebrating World IP Day, 2016
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Here’s wishing all our
readers a very innovative and creative World IP Day 2016!
Every
year, April 26 is celebrated globally as World Intellectual Property (IP) Day.
It was initiated by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 2000
to promote discussions on the role IP plays in various aspects of our day to
day lives and thus encourage innovation and creativity. Interestingly, the
choosing of the date April 26 has a history behind it in the sense that it was
on April 26, 1970 that the Convention establishing the WIPO, which would soon
become the leading global forum to promote intellectual property as a force for
positive change, was entered into force.
WIPO
chooses and announces a theme for the day every year, and the theme chosen for
2016 is “Digital Creativity: Culture Reimagined”. The underlying idea
behind this is to explore the future of culture in the digital age i.e. how it
is created, how it is accessed, and of course, how it is financed. The endeavor
is to arrive at a balanced and flexible intellectual property system that can help
ensure that those working in the creative sector and artists themselves are
properly paid for their work, so they can continue creating.
The
advent of the internet and the digital revolution has already reimagined Culture
as we know it. The internet has turned into something of a digital stage for
the world, providing enormous opportunity for creators all across the world and
without any barriers of age or location. It is a natural phenomenon in today’s world
to have cultural and creative works produced around the world, distributed and
consumed through digital channels in an unprecedented manner which was not
imaginable only 20 years ago. Today, a creator or performer and his audience
can interact on a digital level without having to even leave their homes. This
massive evolution has made the entire world both a potential creator or
performer, and a potential audience. The entire manner in which creative works
are produced around the world, the sort of works that are produced, the way
they are distributed, and even the way they are consumed or enjoyed worldwide
has been reimagined as a consequence of digital technology. Today, there is a
natural blending of global cultures on a level never thought of before,
creating enormous cultural opportunity. Needless to state, this also creates
massive economic opportunity for all stakeholders. It is this opportunity which
WIPO wants to celebrate on World IP Day this year.
On this day, as we
celebrate digital creativity across the world, WIPO urges us to think about how
to find the right balance between recognizing the importance of creators and
innovators to all the cultural and technological progress that we see as a
consequence of digital technology, while at the same time ensuring the social
benefit of widespread access to their works.
Message
from WIPO Director General, Mr. Francis Gurry
“On this day, as we
celebrate digital creativity across the world, we should also think about how
to find the right balance – one which recognizes the importance of creators and
innovators to all the progress that we see ... as a consequence of digital technology.”
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