Celebrate Women for This Years World Intellectual Property Day
The 26th of April 2018 will mark World Intellectual Property Day. Starting in 2000 by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) the day serves as an opportunity to teach people about Intellectual Property (IP) Rights and highlight the importance IP plays in fostering innovation and creativity. Each year carries a theme and this years theme focuses on women and is entitled Powering Change: Women in Innovation and Creativity.
Such a theme comes after previous statistics and studies carried out by WIPO have found substantial differences between men and women when it comes to owning IP rights, with female innovators constantly underrepresented thus leading to a prominent gender gap in the field. In the first of its kind study conducted in 2016, it was found that 29% of international patent applications filed through the Patent Corporation Treaty (PCT) included at least one female inventor compared to the figure of 17% found in 1995. While it was found that improvements were evident over the number of years there was still efforts to be made to close this gap. Speaking at a conference following the analysis, Director General Francis Gurry while describing the findings as encouraging, acknowledged that “these data prove that a gender gap exists, and it needs to be addressed.”
Exploring this gender gap further we spoke to a member of our team here at Cruickshank, Emma Koncewicz. Emma is familiar with the topic of gender disparity and has witnessed this gender gap many times with the many innovators she has met through her career and has previously spoke about her experiences which you can read here.
In celebrating another year of IP, this April we also are given the opportunity to celebrate women who are driving change and shaping the future.
To speak with a member of our team regarding any IP related issue, please contact us where we will be happy to schedule a meeting to discuss this further.
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