WIPO Urges Youth to "Think, Imagine, Create" on Occasion of World Intellectual Property Day
Geneva, April 25, 2005
Press Releases PR/2005/405
Geneva, April 25, 2005
WIPO URGES YOUTH TO "THINK, IMAGINE, CREATE" ON OCCASION OF WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY DAY
Marking the fifth World Intellectual Property Day on April 26, the Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Dr. Kamil Idris, urged better understanding of the link between human creativity and intellectual property in daily life. The Director General released the following statement on the occasion of World Intellectual Property Day:
World Intellectual Property Day is an occasion to reflect on how human creativity and innovation help provide a better world for everyone.
Our message this year, Think, Imagine, Create, is directed particularly towards young people.
Mankind's capacity to create and to innovate is limitless. It is a fundamental, human resource with endless potential. Nowhere is this more apparent than in young people. No matter what country or community they are born into, the young share certain striking characteristics: Their curiosity about whatever is new, different, or novel. Their unfettered imagination. Their readiness to play and experiment with everyday objects, with ideas, with technology. Their talent for finding unconventional solutions.
Our goal for World Intellectual Property Day and beyond should be to encourage young people everywhere to recognize the creator, the problem-solver, the artist within themselves. For innovation and creativity are the natural resources on which future prosperity depends. From the classrooms of today will come the entrepreneurs, the scientists, the designers, the artists of tomorrow.
WIPO is committed to promoting a culture in which young people can realize this potential. Through well-balanced IP systems and structures, WIPO seeks to help creators across the globe to generate economic value from their creations, and so to contribute to the social, cultural and economic advancement of their own societies and of the wider world.
Think, imagine, create. These are words to inspire young people to follow their dreams to the fullest.
In 2000, WIPO member states decided to designate a World Intellectual Property Day to raise awareness of the role of intellectual property in our daily lives, and to celebrate the contribution made by innovators and artists to the development of societies across the globe. They chose April 26 as this was the date on which the Convention establishing WIPO originally entered into force in 1970. WIPO and its member states have celebrated World Intellectual Property Day on April 26 each year since its inception in 2001.
The purpose of this year's World Intellectual Property Day is to encourage young people to recognize their own ability to create; to increase understanding of how protecting IP rights helps to foster creativity and innovation; and to raise awareness of the importance in daily life of patents, copyright, trademarks and designs.
A list of activities organized by WIPO member states on the occasion of World Intellectual Property Day is available at https://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/world_ip/2005/activities.html.
WIPO has also organized an exhibition on intellectual property and sports. The exhibition entitled "Striving for Excellence: an exhibition on intellectual property and sport" will open at WIPO's Information Center in Geneva on World Intellectual Property Day. The exhibition offers a glimpse of the technological advances that have enhanced sport both on and off the track: by enhancing the performance and natural ability of athletes and in creating opportunities for us all to share in the spectacle, capture the images and savor the glory and wonder that comes when ordinary people achieve extraordinary feats. The exhibition is open to the public and will run through August 2005.
For further information please contact the Media Relations and Public Affairs Section at (+ 41 22) 338 81 61, Fax: (+41 22) 338 88 10, E-mail: publicinf@wipo.int.