The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) hosted the 4th Women and IP Symposium for IP and Innovation Offices from May 11 to 13, 2026, at its headquarters in Geneva and online. The three-day event brought together representatives from over 80 offices worldwide to exchange experience, share practical approaches, and strengthen women’s participation in innovation and intellectual property systems.
Opening the Symposium, Daren Tang, Director General, WIPO, reaffirmed the organization’s commitment to ensuring that women and girls can fully realize their creative and innovative potential.
"I think about the women I've encountered through WIPO's work; innovators with real solutions to real challenges, who had never filed for IP protection. At WIPO, we are doing our part by equipping them. We are supporting countries by deepening the data that underpins good policymaking and ensuring IP offices have the resources and tools to create the conditions nationally for women to participate fully in innovation and IP. This work needs to continue at national level." - Daren Tang, Director General, WIPO
A growing momentum for IP Offices
The Symposium brought together 165 participants from over 80 IP offices this year.
Discussions showed growing momentum among IP offices worldwide to identify concrete measures to strengthen women’s participation in innovation and intellectual property systems and to integrate these efforts into institutional policies and national innovation systems, while calling for more coordinated and sustained action.
Lisa Jorgenson, Deputy Director General, WIPO, and the organization's first IP & Gender Champion highlighted the importance of moving toward coherent institutional action.
"When the right space, the right tools, and the right connections are in place, conversation becomes action. That is what this Symposium is designed to make possible." she said.
Using data and evidence to strengthen policy
Discussions across the three days consistently showed that sex-disaggregated data is a key driver of policy and institutional transformation. Evidence presented by WIPO and the European Patent Office showed that, despite comparable levels of participation in STEM education, women remain significantly underrepresented in patenting activity.
That evidence becomes most impactful when embedded in institutional frameworks. Across countries, IP offices demonstrated how national strategies and governance structures can translate data into concrete measures. Spain’s Patent and Trademark Office (OEPM) described how a national equality law requiring gender plans for all companies above 50 employees, has contributed to institutional transformation, with women now representing a majority of its workforce and holding a significant proportion of managerial positions.
Expanding knowledge through outreach, education and tools
Participants also heard from WIPO and partners on how targeted outreach, education and community-based tools can help broaden participation in IP systems by making them more accessible, relevant and responsive to women entrepreneurs and young innovators.
WIPO’s first IP Camp for Girls in STEAM in Nigeria introduced girls and young women to IP through real community challenges, where they developed solutions and applied tools such as trademarks, patents, and copyright, culminating in pitching their ideas to mentors and investors. In Uganda, “IP in a Box” uses a game-based format co-created with young entrepreneurs to reflect real local business situations and make IP learning more practical and engaging.