Today is world IP day, which celebrates Intellectual Property in all its forms. On this day in 1970, the convention establishing the World Intellectual Property Organisation came into force. World IP day celebrates the ways different types of IP improve people’s lives all over the world.
IP is more varied than you think. Most people have heard of trademarks, copyright and patents, but there are many other types of IP. You can also get design rights, which protect the appearance of a product and protectors of geographical origin, like Parmesan and Champagne. The UK has 65 products with protected geographical status, including Cornish pasties, Melton Mowbray pork pies, Cornish clotted cream and West Wales coracle caught salmon. France has 217.
Intellectual property sometimes gets a bad rep with cases like Apple’s registration of a round edged rectangle or Cadbury and Nestle’s battle over the colour purple, and stories like these can distract from the benefits of Intellectual Property laws.
Intellectual Property is about more than big companies policing their territory, it is about incentivising innovation. Without the prospect of legal protection, companies would not be able to invest the enormous sums of money in R&D that it takes to bring a new drug to the market for example. There is no point being the first to develop a new technology if your competition is free to start using it without spending any money on R&D.
For technology to progress, somebody needs to take a risk by spending time and money to test out new possibilities. This time and money may be wasted. Even if the experiments are successful, commercialising the product at the end may be difficult, especially if someone else comes along and copies the idea. IP seeks to rebalance this calculus so that inventors are incentivised to accept that risk in exchange for the prospect of a smoother route to commercialisation and more profit. Patents expire after about 20 years, giving the inventor a fair chance to recover his costs and make a profit, and then letting everyone benefit freely in turn.
International IP has become more important as globalisation has exposed small and medium enterprises to more competition, and more potential infringement. This is why the World Intellectual Property Organisation was set up on this day in 1970, and has been working hard to reward innovators and maximise technological progress ever since.
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