In case you were unaware of it, today is World Intellectual Property Day.
The World Intellectual Property Organization or WIPO designated the occasion in 2004. Its main tenets:
- to raise awareness of how patents, copyrights, trademarks and designs impact daily life;
- to increase understanding of how protecting IP rights helps promote creativity and innovation;
- to celebrate creativity, and the contribution made by creators and innovators to the development of societies across the globe;
- to encourage respect for the IP rights of others.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the American Intellectual Property Law Association are co-hosting a celebratory event today in Washington, D.C.
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Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, US Trade Representative Ambassador Ronald Kirk and Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. John Conyers (D, MI) will speak at the event, which will also feature Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and USPTO Director David Kappos, Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Francisco Sanchez, WIPO Deputy Director General James Pooley, and AIPLA Executive Director Q. Todd Dickinson.
The day also offers another opportunity to raise awareness for patent-reform legislation. Inventors Digest is on record as supporting most of the changes contained in the current bill, S. 515.
The U.S. Department of Commerce is rolling out a research report titled “Patent Reform—Unleashing Innovation, Promoting Economic Growth and Producing High-Paying Jobs,” authored by the Commerce Department’s Chief Economist Mark Doms, the USPTO’s Chief Economist Stuart Graham and the USPTO’s Administrator for External Affairs Arti Rai.
Highlights were released last week by Kappos at the National Bureau of Research (NBER) “Innovation Policy and Economy” conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
Among the key statistics the report:
•Technological innovation is linked to three-quarters of the nation’s post-WWII growth rate. Two innovation-linked factors – capital investment and increased efficiency – represent 2.5 percentage points of the 3.4 percent average annual growth rate achieved since the 1940’s.
•Innovation produces high-paying jobs. Average compensation per employee in innovation-intensive sectors increased 50 percent between 1990 and 2007—nearly two and one-half times the national average.
•Highly innovative firms rely heavily on timely patents to attract venture capital — 76 percent of startup managers report that venture capital investors consider patents when making funding decisions.
•Delay in the granting of rights has substantial costs. Recent reports conclude that the U.S. backlog (currently at 750,000 applications) could ultimately cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars annually in “foregone innovation.”
•The fee-setting authority patent reform gives to the USPTO will contribute significantly to the agency’s planned 40 percent reduction in patent pendency.
•The enhanced post-grant review — the process by which a patent’s validity may be challenged through an administrative appeal in front of the USPTO — offers a cost effective and speedier alternative to litigation. The cost of such proceedings is expected to be 50-100 times less expensive than litigation and could deliver $8 to $15 in consumer benefit for every $1 invested.
The full report can be found here.
