The competition is designed for businesses and start-ups that use intellectual property for their growth and to positively impact societal development. Deadline for applications: 31 March 2024.
The World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) annual awards aim to recognise small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that make intelligent use of intellectual property for their commercial purposes while positively impacting society through their creativity and innovation. The Awards are closely linked to WIPO’s mission to support innovators and creators around the world by helping their ideas to travel safely to market in order to improve the quality of life globally.
The competition is open to businesses from all business sectors, operating anywhere in the world, that commercialise their intellectual property, resulting in income, job creation, addressing local or global challenges and supporting the development of their communities and nations. These can be, among many others, green innovator enterprises, representatives of creative industries or creators of locally or internationally known brands.
As in previous editions, a jury of independent leading experts will select up to 7 winners for 2024. For the first time this year, however, the jury will also take into account the contribution of enterprises to the Sustainable Development Goals. Start-ups, which use intellectual property from the very beginning of their operations, are another innovation in this year’s awards programme.
The winners will be announced at a special ceremony to be held during the WIPO General Assembly in July in Geneva, Switzerland. They will receive not only recognition, but also personalized mentoring to support their intellectual property strategies, including those related to fundraising, partnership opportunities, public visibility and their other needs.
The application form can be completed in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Japanese, Russian or Spanish.
Applications will be open until 31 March 2024 (23:59 CET)
You can read more about the contest here.
The rules for the competition can be found here.
