UN Education Outreach | Film Your Issue 2008

Armed with a few thousand dollars, digital cameras and some lights, Nigerian directors have created a $250 million film industry. (Photo: Aimee Corrigan)

Intellectual Property

Intellectual property refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works (including music and films) and symbols, names, images and designs used in commerce.

Intellectual property rights are intended to reward creativity and to stimulate innovation. Copyright, for example, gives musicians, film-makers, writers, soft-ware designers and other creators a means to earn payment from their works. Through patents, inventors and research institutions owners can benefit in exchange for sharing their technological break-throughs. Trademarks help consumers to identify their preferred products and encourage companies to compete.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), part of the United Nations, is dedicated to developing a well functioning, balanced international intellectual property system. Among the diverse issues on which WIPO’s member countries work together are:

How to make sure that international copyright laws serve the needs of our fast changing digital world, where music, images or words can be accessed and copied at a click of a mouse;
How to tackle the explosive growth in counterfeit goods, especially fake medicines, car-parts, food-stuffs and other products which endanger people’s health or safety;
How to ensure that patent rights continue to drive forward innovation, but that they do not prevent new technologies from reaching the people most in need of them;
How to help developing countries reap the benefits of intellectual property, be it by protecting the inventions and artistic works of their people, by promoting the distinctive qualities of their produce, or as a means to preserve their cultural heritage and traditional knowledge.

For a virtual tour of intellectual property in every day life, click here.

Learn more about intellectual property, please visit the WIPO site.

The World Intellectual Property Organization publishes the WIPO Magazine (PDF). WIPO Magazine articles showing IP in action:

The WIPO also publishes an annual Overview (PDF). Highlights from the 2007 edition include: