Laos marks World Intellectual Property Day

Laos had been officially involved in the protection of intellectual property since 1993, the President of the National Authority of Science and Technology said yesterday in Vientiane.

Prof Dr Bountiem Phissamay, who is also Minister to the Prime Minister's Office, made the statement in a message on World Intellectual Property Day, which is observed annually on April 26.

Dr Bountiem added that in 1995 a prime ministerial decree and other regulations concerning trademark protection were announced. Each year more than 1,000 trademarks had been licensed for domestic and foreign products.

Laos had also issued a prime ministerial decree relating to trademarks and industry in 2002.

The National Assembly had approved a law on intellectual property, since when the authorities had circulated information to the public about the rules concerning intellectual property.

Laos became a member of the World Intellectual Property Organisation in 1995 and a member of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property in 1998. Lao authorities had discussed with other Asean nations the development of a system to issue trademarks.

The Lao government had set up several goals to encourage the protection of intellectual property, including a master plan. It also intended to include this topic in the country's education system, recognising it was important to industrialise Laos through the introduction of better technology and to join the Asean Free Trade Area. To do so the country had to formulate new ideas to help the nation's economic development. These activities would take place from now until 2020.

At the same time, the Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), Dr Kamil Idris, issued a message to mark the day.

Dr Idris said World Intellectual Property Day was rapidly growing in popularity. Since its launch eight years ago increasing numbers of governments and organisations had joined WIPO in the annual celebrations on April 26.

He said the man or woman in the street might wonder just what makes intellectual property worth all this effort. What, they might ask, do the workings of copyrights, patents, industrial designs and trademarks have to do with the really big issues, like how to stop global warming. Was there any connection to the things that add spice to life, such as watching their favourite athletes perform in this year's Olympics?

The answer, he said, is that without intellectual property rights many new technologies developed to tackle global problems would never see the light of day and the great sporting events, which entertain and unite us, would not be broadcast into homes across the globe.

On World Intellectual Property Day we are celebrating not only the enormous power of human creativity, but also the intellectual property rights that help to fuel and channel it, making it such an important driving force for economic, cultural and social development.

The ingenuity of our species has propelled us from the invention of the first wheel to effortless air travel and the latest generation of clean fuel technologies. It has led us from the creation of drawings on a cave wall to the printing press, and on to the Internet, which puts the world literally at our fingertips. It has given us technical advances which allow pole-vaulters to soar ever higher, footballers to shoot ever further and millions of ordinary people to have a level of well-being which would have been unimaginable only a few generations ago.

WIPO is committed to using intellectual property as a means of harnessing and spreading the power of human creativity and innovation so that the people of every country, of every community, can share in their bounty.

And so, on World Intellectual Property Day, we pay tribute to the inventors and artists, great and small, who enrich our existence with the fruits of their innovative thoughts and creative vision. And we remember why it is that their intellectual property rights, the rights that they have earned through their individual and collective talents, deserve our admiration, our protection, and our respect.

By Vientiane Times
(Latest Update April 25, 2008)