The main purpose of the mission was to hand over the WIPO Awards during the official ceremony organized by the Commerce Department and to strengthen collaboration between Malta and WIPO.
As a part of Malta’s strategy to encourage and reward creativity and innovation, in 2011 the Commerce Department organized for the second time a competition inviting Maltese enterprises, inventors and creators to submit entries for innovation and creativity awards. Following the evaluation of the submissions which took place in November and December 2011, the Commerce Department organized the award ceremony where the winners of various categories were presented with a WIPO award as well as a monetary reward provided by the Government of Malta.
During the ceremony, the key speaker Director General Francis Gurry addressed the rather narrow perspective of the importance of IP system. He emphasized that the role of IP has fundamentally changed. Likewise, the increased focus on knowledge and the rise of innovative countries have prompted a growing demand for IP protection.