WIPO focusing on the role of women in intellectual property in Latin America

[WIPO Magazine - January 2000, page 7]

From 29-30 November 1999, some 60 participants, including government representatives from 15 Latin American countries, attended a regional seminar on intellectual property and women in San José, Costa Rica. The government representatives were all women who head-up intellectual property offices or hold other high-level management or policy-making posts in the intellectual property administrations of the countries in the region. Among those opening the seminar, organized by WIPO with the cooperation of the Government of Costa Rica, were Mr. Luís Polinaris, Acting Minister of Justice, and Mrs. Gloria Valerín, Minister for Women's Affairs of Costa Rica.

Topics discussed included the role of women in:

• public administration and policy-making in Latin America
• the promotion of intellectual property, creativity, and innovation, especially among women
• challenges and opportunities at the beginning of a new millennium
• the contribution of intellectual property towards the advancement of women in society.

These discussions were followed by country presentations on intellectual property developments in each of the countries represented, where all participants had the opportunity to share and learn from the experiences of others.

For the government representatives, the work commenced at the seminar was reinforced by an intensive 3-day workshop on leadership and management training for women managers of intellectual property offices. It was organized by WIPO with the cooperation of the Instituto Centroamericano de Adminintración de Empresas (INCAE), at its campus in Alajuela, and provided a completely different environment for the participants to continue their rich exchange of experiences and build upon their management and communication skills.

The seminar and workshop thus met two principal objectives:

• to focus on the role of women in the intellectual property system and on the need to further integrate women, both as users of the system and as administrators, and
• to contribute to the promotion of intellectual property and to capacity building and the modernization and efficient administration of the intellectual property system in Latin America.