WIPO Japan Office organizes a WIPO GREEN Partner Networking Event
June 28, 2023
On June 21, 2023, WIPO Japan Office organized the first WIPO GREEN Partner Networking Event under the auspices of Japan Patent Office (JPO) and Japan Intellectual Property Association (JIPA).
The purpose of this event is to invite Japanese partners, the largest number of partners by country in the world, to discuss the acceleration of open innovation in environmental technology through WIPO GREEN, and to share information among them. This event was held with the financial support from Funds-In-Trust Japan Industrial Property Global (FIT/Japan IP Global).
Scene of the Venue
The event began with opening remarks by Mr. Tomoki SAWAI, Director of WIPO Japan Office, who said, "I hope this event will serve as a "crossing point" across industries and business sectors to promote open innovation in environmental technologies. Mr. Koichi HAMANO, Commissioner of the Japan Patent Office (JPO), gave the guest speech saying, "JPO would like to support WIPO GREEN in its efforts to promote GX technology," and Mr. Takeshi UENO, Executive Managing Director of Japan Intellectual Property Association (JIPA), gave the partner representative address, "We hope to strengthen our cooperative relationship through this meaningful event held in 2023, the 10th anniversary of the establishment of WIPO GREEN.” A video presentation on the current outlook of WIPO GREEN by Ms. Marion (Amy) Dietterich, WIPO GREEN Coordinator and Director of Global Challenge Division, was screened. Furthermore, Mr. Tomonori BEKKU, SDGs Working Leader of JIPA, talked about strengthening activities for the utilization of many registered technologies, followed by Mr. Takashi OSHIRO, Head of Intellectual Property Strategy Office, Fujitsu Ltd, spoke on importance of opportunity of discussion for creating partnership. Mr. Hidehiko KATAYAMA, Senior General Manager of Corporate Licensing Division, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, talked about the shift to co-creation from competition. Mr. Yoichi OSHIMA, Vice President for Government and Industry Relations, Tokyo Tech, gave a speech on contribution to greening as a research and educational institution.
In the latter half of the program, all the representatives from the participated organizations introduced their activities and challenges, as well as requests and opinions to WIPO GREEN in a lively free discussion. This was followed by a networking reception.
A total of 72 participants from both on-site and online participated in this first event for WIPO GREEN partners in Japan to meet and network together. In order to receive candid opinions, we adopted a closed meeting format for partners only.
Participants expressed many opinions, such as the need for co-existence and partnership across industries to work on global environmental issues, and the challenge of raising awareness of intellectual property activities and WIPO GREEN within the company. In the post-event questionnaire, 96% of the participants gave a positive evaluation of the event, and 100% of them expressed their desire to participate in the next similar meeting.
WIPO Japan Office will continue to work with WIPO GREEN partners to promote the creation of successful cases of matching and technology transfer through WIPO GREEN.
WIPO GREEN, an initiative to address environmental issues such as global warming, was proposed by Japanese industry and is one of the main measures of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). WIPO Japan Office is working to achieve the SDGs by actively promoting WIPO GREEN to Japanese users and encouraging their participation.
WIPO GREEN's database contains information on over 120,000 environmental technologies and needs requiring environmental technology from around the world. In addition, 151 organizations from around the world participate as WIPO GREEN Partners to strategically support WIPO GREEN (as of June 2023). From Japan, Japan Patent Office, Japan Intellectual Property Association, and other public institutions, organizations, and companies are participating as partners. In recent years, participation from academia has increased, with 49 WIPO GREEN partners participating in Japan (as of June 2023), the largest number of WIPO GREEN partners by country in the world.
As a “missionary” of intellectual property, the WIPO Japan Office will work to promote and raise awareness of WIPO measures, including WIPO GREEN, in cooperation with relevant organizations throughout Japan.