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Women in Innovation and Entrepreneurship

The project "Increasing the Role of Women in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Encouraging Women in Developing Countries to Use the Intellectual Property System" focused on advancing the participation of women inventors and innovators in the national innovation system by supporting their use of the intellectual property system.

By providing better support programs, access to mentorships, and networking opportunities, the project assisted and supported women to gain more awareness, knowledge, and experience of the IP system.

In May 2018, the United States, Canada, and Mexico proposed the project Increasing the Role of Women in Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Encouraging Women to Use Intellectual Property System to the WIPO Development and Intellectual Property Committee (CDIP).

In January 2019, the project was launched as a pilot program that will, hopefully, scale up and become a regular program at WIPO. This is with the aim of supporting women inventors and innovators to make better use of the IP system, in order to increase their participation in national innovation systems. The project end date was set to December 2022.

For more information, visit the project reports and outputs section.

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Not a woman’s job?

When it comes to career prospects in innovation and entrepreneurship, gender-based stereotypes are particularly prevalent.

In what ways can the IP System help women? According to research, women hardly participate in the IP system at the same rate as men or receive the same benefits, even though these differences exist across all forms of intellectual property rights (IPRs). Individual women, businesses, and societies alike would benefit greatly from solving this problem.

What are the challenges contributing to the gender gap in IP?

  • More data is needed to determine the scope and nature of the gender gap.
  • Women are less likely to be trained and encouraged to enter STEM fields, as well as to receive the resources they need to succeed in business.
  • Women are less likely to pursue careers in IP law and administration.
  • A lack of understanding of the importance of IP rights and how the IP system works.
  • Women are less likely to receive mentoring and advancement opportunities in IP-sensitive fields.

What can we do?

  • Knowing what data is being collected and how difficult it may be to collect it
  • Promoting applications for IP grants, scholarships, and internships for girls, adult women and educators, academic research funding, investments in female entrepreneurs, and building fundamental capacities for women.
  • Through increasing the number of female STEM professionals and implementing targeted training programs for women interested in IP law and administration careers it is possible to increase the number of female IP law and administration professionals indirectly.
  • Promoting awareness-raising and targeted capacity-building initiatives.
  • Assisting women to succeed and stay in IP-intensive careers, as well as encouraging them to commercialize their inventions through networking and mentoring.

Innovation by women are changing the world. However, women remain underrepresented in international patenting.

WIPO IP Mentorship Program for Women Inventors

One of the objectives of the project was to provide access to mentors and each pilot country identified potential mentors who could support their women inventors. In addition, the project implemented a pilot program of international mentorship for the benefit of inventors in the pilot countries.

By consulting directly with expert IP mentors, the program aimed to help a group of over 25 female inventors from the pilot countries; Pakistan, Mexico, Oman, and Uganda gain a better understanding of how different IP management strategies may enhance their ability to bring their inventions to market.

Each mentee was paired with one of the volunteer international mentors, an experienced IP expert, and they would engage in four one on one meetings according to a given structure to explore how the inventors could use the IP system to support their efforts to bring their inventions to market.

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Meet our program mentors

IP resources for women innovators and entrepreneurs

To many, intellectual property (IP) is a rather obscure legal concept that can only be properly understood and applied by those who are specially trained. Our series of guides are designed to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) especially to understand why it is important to pay attention to IP, and what benefits can be drawn from its use. For that purpose, we have also designed a collection of training material made available below.

Download all presentations ZIP, Download all ip presentations for women innovators and entrepreneurs

  • Using the Intellectual Property System for Business Competitiveness
    • Trademarks PPT, Trademarks
    • Industrial Designs PPT, Industrial Designs
    • Patents PPT, Patents
  • What is Intellectual Property? PPT, What is Intellectual Property?
  • The Importance of Using IP in Business Strategy: Intellectual Property for Startups PPT, The Importance of Using IP in Business Strategy: Intellectual Property for Startups
  • Are you involved in an IP or technology dispute? Have you considered WIPO’s alternative dispute resolution services? PDF, Are you involved in an IP or technology dispute? Have you considered WIPO’s alternative dispute resolution services?
  • How SMEs can use WIPO Mediation and Arbitration to resolve IP and innovation disputes efficiently PDF, How SMEs can use WIPO Mediation and Arbitration to resolve IP and innovation disputes efficiently
  • How to draft efficient mediation and arbitration clauses for your IP and commercial contracts PDF, How to draft efficient mediation and arbitration clauses for your IP and commercial contracts 
  • Fundamentals of using patent databasesPDF, Fundamentals of using patent databases
  • Identifying Inventions in the Public Domain: A Guide for Inventors and Entrepreneurs PDF, Identifying Inventions in the Public Domain: A Guide for Inventors and Entrepreneurs
  • Using Inventions in the Public Domain: A Guide for Inventors and Entrepreneurs PDF, Using Inventions in the Public Domain: A Guide for Inventors and Entrepreneurs

 

(Image: iStock/Getty Plus/marrio31)

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