A decade of celebrating creativity

• Pages: 6-8

Kenya organized a

week of activities in

2002, including an IP

Day march by Boy

Scouts, a traditional

dance evening with

music and poetry and

a symposium on the

Encouraging

Creativity theme.

APRIL 2010

66

A DECADE

OF CELEBRATING

CREATIVITY

Counterfeit CDs were

destroyed publicly on

April 26, 2003, in Peru

as part of an anti-

piracy campaign.

“Make IP your busi-

ness,” the theme

for 2003, was an

appeal to entre-

preneurs to fully

capitalize on their

intellectual assets

and to use the tools of the IP system to further

their business goals. It was also a wider call for

civil society to recognize that respect for IP rights

benefits not only creators but society as a whole.

WIPO dispatched some 800 World IP Day kits con-

taining the publication

IP – A Power Tool for

Economic Growth (Overview).

Many events that

year focused on anti-piracy campaigns, including

the actual destruction of counterfeit goods.

It is never too soon to start learning about the im-

portance of creativity and innovation in building

a better world, and young people were the focus

of many celebrations in 2004, including outreach

activities by IP offices in local schools. WIPO dis-

tributed 78 copies of the “Creative Planet” video

series for broadcast in 44 countries, and also re-

leased three television spots on the theme

“Encouraging Creativity,” which were aired by

CNN. It was also the occasion to launch two new

guides in the “IP for Business” series for small and

medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

It seems like yesterday that Algeria and China

tabled a proposal at the WIPO Assemblies to es-

tablish April 26 as World Intellectual Property

Day. It was September 2000 and the theme of

the first celebration, to take place on April 26,

2001, was “Creating the future today.”

Despite the short notice for that first celebration,

Member States were enthusiastic in their re-

sponse. Over 50 reported having held events –

from simple open-door days at national intellec-

tual property (IP) offices to full weeks of activities

with concerts and gala celebrations to award

outstanding inventors and creators.

The following year’s theme – “Encouraging cre-

ativity” – would be a recurring one, repeated in

different ways in 2004 and 2007. Requests from

Member States

and observers for

ideas on how to

make the most of

World IP Day in-

spired WIPO to

propose potential

IP outreach activi-

ties that could

help to generate

public and media

interest in IP issues.

Some 70 Member

States took up the

challenge. IP was in newspapers from Bhutan to

Uruguay, on radios from Cuba to Kazakhstan, on

television sets from Antigua and Barbuda to

Mauritius, on the Internet, in the streets of Kenya

and Zimbabwe…

WORLD IP DAY

The exhibition Creativity by Children – A Chinese Experience

featured a collection of drawings made by Chinese children

for the celebration of the first World IP Day in 2001.

The opening of a seminar and exhibition to mark

IP Day in Ghana in 2004.