Easy to use search interfaces allow users to find a wealth of studies and outreach examples used to promote the creation, use and respect of IP.
Big public relations outfits have a rough time at it. Budget rich IP offices have had soaring success stories as well as frustrating defeats. Small national offices beg for assistance in doing it. What is it?
The creation of effective intellectual property outreach campaigns. Just look back at a few issues of the WIPO Magazine. The U.S. advertising campaign aimed at stimulating young people to be inventive, which produced the award winning “Cat Magnet” commercial, was a big success, and so was Brazil’s “Pirates Out!” counterfeiting campaign. But there was also the short life of Canada’s “Captain Copyright”. A campaign created by a public relations outfit for the Philippines ended up shelved. Marketing IP is not an easy job.
Depending on the IP outreach message, be it promoting innovation or use of the IP system, tackling counterfeiting, or targeting a key audience – young people, IP stakeholders, or SMEs – there will always be many diverse questions that will need answering:
- What do teenagers think about their ability to invent?
- Why do some SMEs not register their IP?
- What would deter consumers from buying counterfeit goods?
- What types of outreach initiatives to encourage innovation have been successful?
- Have any Spanish patent guides for inventors been made available?
- Which outreach tools are most often used in anti-piracy campaigns?
Database solutions
To help those involved in IP outreach activities find answers to these and other important questions, WIPO’s Communication and Public Outreach Division has created two new databases complementing the WIPO Guide to Intellectual Property Outreach released in 2007. The first database contains studies relating to the awareness, attitudes and behaviour of different audiences – students, teachers, inventors, artistic creators, consumers, SMEs, researchers and others – towards intellectual property. The second database contains practical examples of outreach initiatives – public service announcements, websites, awards, guides, curriculum materials, special events, etc – that have been used to communicate with such audiences.
These databases are intended to serve as a source of background information and inspiration. They can also be used to find potential partners for new studies and IP outreach activities. Easy to use basic search interfaces allow users to find relevant information quickly by specifying the outreach category in which they are interested: IP creation, IP use and awareness, and IP crime. An advanced search option allows users to search by country, target group, focus or other variables.
While the search interfaces are currently available in English only, the studies and outreach initiatives in the databases cover over 90 countries and refer to outreach resources in more than 20 different languages. The database tools will soon be enhanced by case studies focusing on specific outreach efforts from around the world.
By Fabio Weissert, Communications and Public Outreach Division.