World Intellectual Property Day

The event was established by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 2000 to "raise awareness of how patents, copyright, trademarks and designs impact on daily life" and "to celebrate creativity, and the contribution made by creators and innovators to the development of economies and societies across the globe".

[17] World Intellectual Property Day 2022 also featured a panel discussion on Innovating for Better Health: Supporting Young Innovators through IP, was organized in collaboration with the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) with the support of the Geneva Health Forum and Speak UP Africa, which brought together young innovators/entrepreneurs and mentors from various countries and international experts.

Themed around ‘IP and Youth: Innovating for a Better Future’, we recorded over 15 million impressions across our digital platforms and there were nearly 600 World Intellectual Property Day events across 189 Member States, our largest participation ever.

[20] Each year, the campaign is rolled out around a topical theme: This event has been criticized by a number of intellectual property activists and scholars as one-sided propaganda in favor of traditional copyright, ignoring alternatives related to copyleft and the free culture movement.

[42] Cushla Kapitzk from the Queensland University of Technology wrote that most of the WIPO's statements related to promotion of the World Intellectual Property Day are "either exaggerated or unsubstantiated"; noting that for example one of WIPO's claims used to promote this event, namely that "copyright helps bring music to our ears and art, films and literature before our eyes" is "tenuous at best, and lexical association of copyright with things recognised as having social and cultural value ('art', 'film' and 'literature') functions to legitimate its formulation and widespread application".

[43] A number of grassroots-supported observances in opposition of prevalent IP laws celebrated by the World Intellectual Property Day exist, none of them supported by WIPO:

An exhibition showing the intellectual property (IP) behind Steve Jobs ' innovations opened to the public at WIPO from 30 March 2012, to World Intellectual Property Day on 26 April 2012. The exhibition tied in with 2012's World Intellectual Property Day theme – 'Visionary Innovators'.
Women in Science – Shaping the Future Roundtable event at WIPO to mark World Intellectual Property Day 2023.
Rosanna Díaz Costa, Director, "Un Mundo para Julius / A World for Julius", speaks at the "Film Industry: A Woman’s Perspective" event at WIPO to mark World Intellectual Property Day.
Rosanna Díaz Costa, Director, "Un Mundo para Julius / A World for Julius", speaks at the "Film Industry: A Woman’s Perspective" event at WIPO to mark World Intellectual Property Day 2023.
Catherine Jewell, Senior Information Officer, WIPO Information and Digital Outreach Division, announces the winners of the 2022 World Intellectual Property Day Youth Video Competition.
"IP censure", a cartoon discussing concepts of censorship and copyright on the occasion of the World Intellectual Property Day