Today is World Intellectual Property Day

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, World Intellectual Property Day provides an opportunity to reflect on how intellectual property (IP) touches all aspects of our lives: How copyright helps bring music to our ears and art, films and literature before our eyes; how industrial design helps shape our world, and how trademarks provide reliable signs of quality; how patenting helps promote ingenious inventions that make life easier, faster, safer – and sometimes completely change our way of living.

"These things are often taken for granted; there is little public awareness of
the connection between human creativity and intellectual property in daily life.
Although most people have heard of copyright, patents and trademarks, many view
them simply as business or legal concerns, with little effect on their own
lives. World Intellectual Property Day provides an ideal opportunity to improve
public understanding of – and respect for – creativity, innovation, and the
intellectual property system by demonstrating their importance in daily life."

Here are a few things that that they suggest to celebrate this year's World Intellectual Property Day:

• Organize concerts or other public performances centered around the "Think Imagine Create" theme; arrange for performers to deliver messages encouraging respect for creators and creativity.
• With local businesses and chambers of commerce, organize workshops on how businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), can benefit from using the intellectual property system.
• Work with local newspapers to publish editorials encouraging respect for the rights of creators.
• Organize conferences at local universities to build awareness of intellectual property and its benefits among students, faculty and researchers.
• Mount exhibits at local shopping malls explaining how consumers benefit from strong intellectual property systems (for example, how reliable trademarks can ensure consumer confidence, or how pirated or counterfeit goods can cause problems for consumers).
• Hold a panel discussions (debate) on “hotâ€� intellectual property issues (ie. Patents and pharmaceuticals, the download of music from the Internet, open source vs. software patents, etc.) – encourage public participation or hold in a university.
• Arrange school visits to local science and art museums, with presentations explaining the link between the exhibitions, creativity, and intellectual property.
• Working with local inventors’ societies, stage a competition for best invention. Other competitions can be held for best novel, play, work of art, or any creative work protected as intellectual property.
• Organize an event to give recognition to a great inventor, musician, artist, etc. from the region or country.
• Conduct workshops aimed at various groups of creative people – artists, performers, designers, musicians, inventors, entrepreneurs, etc. – to explain the concrete benefits provided by the intellectual property system for these professions.
• Create locally-focused intellectual property day materials, such as posters, brochures, and bookmarks, targeted at specific audiences in the local language.
• Organize “open doorâ€� day in the local intellectual property or copyright office.
  Broadcast radio and television discussion programs centered around the question of creativity and innovation and how to encourage and protect them, featuring participants from the creative fields as well as from local intellectual property administrations.
• Hold an exhibit of local traditional knowledge showing its modern application and use.