World Intellectual Property Day

The observance of the World Intellectual Property Day on April 26th offers a unique opportunity to join with others around the globe to consider how intellectual property (IP) helps the global arts scene to flourish and enables the technological innovation that drives human progress. The campaign is also an opportunity to highlight the role that IP rights , such as, patents , trademarks , industrial designs , copyright , play in encouraging innovation and creativity.

World IP Day emphasizes the importance of a balanced IP system to recognize and reward inventors and creators for their work and ensure that society benefits from their creativity and ingenuity. IP rights enable researchers, inventors, businesses, designers, artists and others to legally protect their innovative and creative outputs and secure an economic return from them.

In 2000, WIPO's member states designated April 26th – the day on which the WIPO Convention came into force in 1970 – as World IP Day with the aim of increasing general understanding of IP. Since then, World IP Day has been a unique opportunity to celebrate the contributions made by inventors and creators around the world and to explore how IP contributes to a flourishing of music and the arts and to the technological innovation that helps shape our world . Frequently asked questions