Intellectual property has always been an important foundation for a growing global economy. However, many around the world and in the U.S. still struggle to relate protections for IP to their everyday lives.
As the World Intellectual Property Organization explains on its Web site “Each year, WIPO and its Member States celebrate World Intellectual Property Day with activities, events and campaigns. These seek to increase public understanding of what IP really means, and to demonstrate how the IP system fosters not only music, arts and entertainments, but also all the products and technological innovations that help to shape our world.” And IPI’s goals are the same – to seek a public understanding of just how broad the world of intellectual property and its related public policy have become.
This year IPI’s World IP Day event will feature four panels and a kick-off keynote address all representing a very different facet of issues related to intellectual property.
- While the online IP debate that was once framed as ‘content versus conduit’ is now more nuanced, with increased interdependence on both sides that is no longer the case. The first panel Digital Technologies: Emerging Challenges, Evolving Strategies will discuss strategies for allowing legal content to flow, in the face of new challenges from both free-riders and over-regulation.
- The debate over implementation of IP rules has frequently foundered over the issue of capacity building and the related challenge of demonstrating concrete social and economic benefits from improved IP protection. The second panel, Social and Economic Benefits of IP: Who Wins? Who Loses?,will look closely at current international capacity building efforts.
- IP is vital to the growth of wealth in today's economy. Investors, firms, and universities strive to leverage their intellectual capital, converting "shelfware" into real assets, and attracting needed capital for product development. The discussion during The Intellectual Property Marketplace: The Role of IP Valuation & Tech Transfer panel will examine the latest trends in new methods for the valuation of IP.
- The final panel, Combating (Dangerous) Counterfeits: How Countries are Policing their Borders, will explore the challenges businesses and law enforcement face in their efforts to combat dangerous counterfeits. The global trade in illicit goods is growing more sophisticated, harming —even killing— consumers around the world, funding organized criminal enterprises and undercutting sales of legitimate products.
Please join us, Thursday, April 24, 2008, 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM at the Reserve Officers Association (ROA) Headquarters Minuteman Memorial Building Minuteman Ballroom, 5th Floor- One Constitution Ave NE, Washington DC by sending your RSVP to Erin Humiston at (972) 874-5139 or erin@ipi.org*
*Seating is limited- please register today to confirm your participation