World Intellectual Property Day is celebrated every year on April 26, by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). This day was decided on by WIPO in the year 2000 to highlight the role that Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) play in encouraging innovation and creativity. The day is observed with a variety of events and activities worldwide, as it serves to increase awareness and understanding of intellectual property (IP).
This year’s theme in celebration of World IP Day 2022 is “IP and Youth: Innovating for a Better Future”. With this theme, WIPO’s aim is to celebrate youth-led innovation and creativity.
The youth of today will be the innovators and inventors of tomorrow, as they hold a vast sense of creativity and ingenuity and are the ones that we will depend upon to help drive the changes we need to move to more sustainable practices.
We can see this at work right here in our country where the youths are reshaping the way forward with their creativity and ingenuity. They are putting their curiosity into action to reshape our country and the world for a better future. Over the past few years, we have heard of quite a few young and emerging entrepreneurs such as authors, musicians, songwriters and those with new business ventures, right here in Belize.
As WIPO states, “The youth of today are an incredible and largely untapped source of creativity and ingenuity. There are around 1.8 billion young people (aged 24) in the world today. Ninety percent of them live in developing countries. The proportion of young people (under 35) is set to increase in the coming years. In all regions, young people are natural agents of change, carving pathways to a better future.”
With this in mind, World Intellectual Property Day seeks to pave the way for the youths to gain an understanding of what IP is all about and how IP can be used to support their dreams and visions in bringing their creativity and ingenuity to reality. By utilizing IPRs, youths can generate income, create jobs and overall serve as a way of shaping their minds in encouraging them to make a positive impact on the world around them.
The Belize Intellectual Property Office (BELIPO) under the auspices of the Attorney General’s Ministry takes this opportunity to invite you to an awareness campaign on April 26, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. via Google Meet. The link can be found on our website at www.belipo.bz. All interested persons are invited, especially schools, colleges and universities, as we join in celebrating World IP Day.
.){kind=link}