Every April 26, we celebrate World Intellectual Property Day to learn about the role that intellectual property rights (patents, trademarks, industrial designs, copyright) play in fostering innovation and creativity.
This year, we examine the future of culture in the digital age: how it is created and accessed and how it is financed.
This year, we examine the future of culture in the digital age: the way it is created and accessed and the way it is funded.
We will look at how a flexible intellectual property system helps to ensure that those working in the creative sector, and artists themselves, are adequately paid for their work so that they can continue to create.
Sunrise in Caracas: a writer wakes up, inspired, and writes something down on her tablet; she sends the idea to her partner, who is in London rehearsing in a West End theater. Words, images, plots and dialogues come and go.
The script for a new series - global pandemic, drug war, political intrigue - arrives in the mailbox of a Hollywood executive producer, who calls his contacts in Dubai, Mumbai, Beijing and Berlin. Deals are sealed, funds are raised, distribution channels are decided.
Filming begins: exteriors in Ouarzazate, interiors in Brooklyn, special effects from Bangkok. The soundtrack is added: an effervescent mix of Rio de Janeiro rhythms and Lagos winds, with a touch of Prague strings.
The theme song goes viral as fans watch the series online, on screens of all sizes, from every corner of the world... Movies, TV, music, books, art, video games - in short, cultural works - have long known no borders; but the Wi-Fi era is transforming the way consumer culture is created, distributed and enjoyed in markets that expand far beyond territorial boundaries.
Increasingly accessible digital technologies have erased physical boundaries at a stroke, placing a world of cross-cultural collaboration at the fingertips of artists and creators, nurturing imaginations in new ways. And this flourishing of digital creativity benefits the digital consumer.
We read, watch and listen to the works of countless creators from around the world wherever, whenever and however we can think of. A new way of looking at culture - the way we create it, the way we access it, and the way we finance it - is a challenge. And the challenge of a flexible and adaptable intellectual property system is to help ensure that the artists and creative industries of our digital universe are properly compensated for their work, so that they can continue to create.
