‘Protecting Intellectual Property is Everyone’s Problem’

Each year on April 26, governments and organizations around the world join the World Intellectual Property Organization in celebrating World Intellectual Property Day as a mark of honour for creative and innovative talents.

This year the theme of the celebrations is, “It’s Everyone’s Problem: Protecting Intellectual Property”.

A press release from the US Embassy in The Gambia gives a vivid picture of the relevance of the Day and of the ramifications and negative effects of the failure to maintain intellectual property rights protections. The release reads:

When intellectual property rights protections fail, the results can be deadly. During a meningitis epidemic in Niger in 1995, more than 50,000 people were inoculated with fake vaccines, resulting in 2,500 deaths. Thirty infants died in India in 1998 and 89 Haitian children died in 1995 from cough syrup prepared with a toxic chemical used in antifreeze. The 1989 crash of a Norwegian aircraft was blamed on a fake bolt in its assembly; fifty-five people died.

“Intellectual property rights” is a fancy name for product accountability and the protection of human creativity. It’s the legal mechanism – through copyright, patents and trademark – that ensures that the products we buy are genuine, and that someone else doesn’t take credit for our ideas. Intellectual property rights don’t just protect inventors; they protect everyone whose safety depends on product reliability in every country in the world, including The Gambia.

Copyright laws encourage the creation of literary works, computer programs, artistic works, and expressions of national culture. Patent laws encourage the discovery of new and improved products and processes, while ensuring the freest possible public access to information regarding those new products and processes. Trademark laws encourage the development and maintenance of high-quality products and services, and help companies promote customer loyalty.

The protection of intellectual property rights enhances countries’ development, and promotes their business and artistic environments. Such protections stimulate advances that benefit the entire world – in the form of technology, medicine and other processes. Protecting intellectual property is crucial to protecting public health and safety in countries across the globe.

Each year on April 26, governments and organizations around the world join the World Intellectual Property Organization in celebrating World Intellectual Property Day. Rewarding the creative, innovative talents on which our world and our future are built – these are the ends which intellection property protection serves and what makes World Intellectual Property Day a cause for celebration.

Information and communications technologies, safe medicines, and the other innovations that form the backbone of today’s economy are only possible because of intellectual property rights. The hopes we all have for a better future depend on those inventors and innovators who will make the world more bountiful – if their creative efforts and hard work are protected.