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Author:  World Intellectual Property Organisation .  Licence: CC BY 4.9 .  Source: WIPO Knowledge Repository Jane Lambert The World Intellectual Property Organisation ("WIPO")  has recently published its Global Innovation Index for 2026.  This is an annual ranking of 139 countries by their capacity for and success in innovation.  The United Kingdom came 6th in that ranking in 2026 as it did in 2025.  The countries above it were Switzerland, Sweden, the United States of America, South Korea and Singapore.   One area in which the UK has done well is in deep science startups.   According to  Press Release 2026/959 , there have been more than 30,000 such enterprises since 2020.  The USA accounted for 12,752, China 3,466 but the UK came in third with 2,133. Anyone wishing to discuss this article may call me on 020 7404 5252 during UK business hours or send me a message through my contact page at any time.

Singapore Supreme Court and Legislature Author: ZKang123     Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0   Source:  Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert In Intellectual Asset Funding   10 Aug 2026 NIPC Inventors' Club, I discussed an announcement by the British Business Bank that it would make up to £500 million of ENABLE Guarantee capacity available over an initial 12-month period to support lending to IP-rich smaller businesses.  Such initiatives will work only if there is an internationally recognised, comprehensive and consistent method of intellectual asset valuation.   Up to now, there has been none. That is about to change with the launch of the Intangible Asset Valuation Network in Singapore during its Intellectual Property Week.    This is a joint project by the International Trademark Association, the International Valuation Standards Council, the Licensing Executives Society International, the World Intellectual Property Organisation, t...

England v India, 2025 First Test, Headingly, Leeds © 2025 Jane Elizabeth Lambert, all rights reserved   Jane Lambert World Intellectual Property Day  is an interntational celebration of the laws that protect investment in branding , design , technology and creativity .  It takes place on or around 26 April which is the anniversary of the WIPO Convention's entry into force.  Each year the celebrations focus on a theme.  The theme for 2026 will be IP and Sports - Ready, Set, Innovate . The Menai Science Park ("M-SParc")  on Anglesey has contributed significantly to  Wales's celebrations of World Intellectual Property Day  every year since 2019.  Sports related businesses based at the science park include Pelly  which offers information systems and services to football club managers and Haia Communications Ltd , which provides a platform for e-sports.  The organizers of this year's celebrations will be Lois Bevan Shaw and Steff Thoma...

(c) 2025 Menai Science Park  Standard YouTube Licence Jane Lambert I discovered M-SParc  (the Menai Science Park) while on holiday in Beaumaris in 2018.  I wrote about it in  M-SParc - Anglesey's Science Park   on 29 Aug 2018.  I got to know it better when I attended the Anglesey Business Festival  later in the year.  I helped the park contribute to World Intellectual Property Day on 26 April 2019 (see Jane Lambert  Celebrating World IP Day at M-SParc: Basic Tips for Startups and other Small Businesse s 29 April 2019,  NIPC Cymru ).  The event was so successful that Emily Roberts , who was then in charge of Operations and Customer Experience at M-SParc, decided to hold a similar event on 11 November to be known as " Wales Enterprise Day." This year's Wales Enterprise Day coincided with the World Intellectual Property Organization's worldwide celebration of examiners .  M-SParc decided to combine both celebrations with a lu...

World Intellectual Property Organization, Geneva Author Emmanuel Berrod  Licence CC BY-SA 4.0   S ource     Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert I mentioned the government's consultation on standard essential patents in  Latest Consultation on Standard Essential Patent Licensing   on 18 July 2025.  One of the topics is "Tell us how alternative dispute resolution services work for standard essential patent disputes."   According to its "WIPO ADR for FRAND Disputes" page , the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Centre has administered some 80 WIPO mediation cases relating to FRAND licensing negotiations. Here are examples of some of the disputes that the Centre has handled: "Mediations between large SEP holders and implementers in Asia and Europe to facilitate the agreement of FRAND licensing terms. Requests for WIPO Mediation relating to licensing negotiations between patent pool administrators and implementers in relation to ongoing unsuccessful...

By Kai Hendry from London, UK - Televised Star Craft, - Stork vs JJU 1, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2531978   Jane Lambert According to the European Union Intellectual Property Office, the worldwide e-sports industry is worth over US$200 billion and has about 3 billion players (see James Nurton Game on: Navigating intellectual property in esports ,  10 June 2024 EU IPO website).  The appeal of e-sports is likely to increase with the establishment of the Olympic Esports Games .  A lot of money is invested in branding, technology and content creation, which will be protected by trade marks, patents, copyrights and other intellectual property rights. Infringement and licensing of those rights are likely to give rise to disputes between parties in different countries that cannot conveniently be resolved by litigation.  The Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC ) and the World Intellectual Property Organization have recently launched...

  jane Lambert World Intellectual Property Day is a worldwide celebration of the legal protection of innovation and creativity that takes place on or around the 26 April of every year.  That day has been chosen because it is the anniversary of the day on which the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization  came into force.  The World Intellectual Property Organization ("WIPO")  is the United Nations specialist agency for intellectual property. Every year World IP Day revolves around a special theme.  In 2021 it was  IP & SMEs: Taking your ideas to market .  In 2022 it was IP and Youth: Innovating for a Better Future .  Last year it was Women and IP: accelerating innovation and creativity .  This year it is  IP and the SDGs: Building our common future with innovation and creativity  which is certainly the most complex and arguably the most ambitious theme ever, "SDGs" stand for "Sustainable Develop...

  Jane Lambert The World Intellectual Property Organization has published reports on unlocking IP-backed funding in China , Jamaica , Singapore , Switzerland  and the UK . The report on the UK was launched yesterday in London by Viscount Camrose , Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for artificial intelligence and intellectual property and Daren Tang, Director-General of WIPO on 19 March 2024 (see the Intellectual Property Office's press release Report launched into UK's IP-backed finance landscape   19 March 2024). The report, which can be downloaded as a PDF from the WIPO website consists of 47 pages of text organized in the following sections: Acronyms (common abbreviations such as "HMRC" and "SME"); Glossary Executive Summary The United Kingdonm's Journey  Types and Sources of IP Funds for equity investment and lending The Legal and Regulatory Framework for UK Finance covering accounting standards and financial regulation as well as law Non-regula...

  Jane Lambert On Thursday 8 Feb 2024 I shall take part in a panel discussion on damages issues in IP and life sciences disputes  as part of the Global Arbitration Review's Damages symposium .   I share the platform with very distinguished practitioners.  There will also be talks on simplifying evidence for tribunals, a question time and plenty of networking opportunities.   Anyone who wishes to attend can register here, There is growing interest in arbitration and other forms of ADR for the resolution of intellectual property and technology disputes. In  WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Centre Report 2023   (19 Jan 2024 NIPC News ), I noted that the World Intellectual Property ("WIPO") Arbitration and Mediation Centre reported that it had disposed of 679 disputes in 2023 which was a 24% increase over the previous year and a 280% increase in the last 5 years (see  WIPO ADR Highlights 2023  18 Jan 2024). There are several reasons for t...

  Jane Lambert About 30 years ago, I attended a workshop on the arbitration of intellectual property disputes. The speakers included  Dr Francis Gurry  and His Honour Peter Ford.  At that time, Dr Gurry was an Australian academic who had written a rather good book on the law of confidence . He went on to become Director-General of the WIPO. Peter Ford was the first judge of the Patents County Court which was the predecessor to the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court ("IPEC"). Two alternative dispute resolution services were set up as a result of that workshop.  One was an arbitration and mediation panel attached to the Patents County Court under the leadership of Prof. Bryan Niblett.  I was a founder member.   I am not sure whether we ever had a case,  Certainly, nothing was referred to me and the panel was disbanded after a few years.   The other was the World Intellectual Property Organization ("WIPO") Arbitration and Mediation...

Author Utilisateur:Ork.c h Licence CC BY-SA 2.0FR   Source Wikimedia Commons Jane Lambert The World Intellectual Property Organization ("WIPO")  operates the Patent Cooperation Treaty ("PCT") , Hague Agreement  and the Madrid Protocol .  These are international agreements that facilitate applications for patent, design or trade mark registrations in multiple countries and territories from a single filing. Those agreements simplify and greatly reduce the costs of obtaining international legal protection for technology, designs and brands. On 28 Feb 2023, the WIPO published its statistics for patent , design and trade mark registrations in 2022.  There had been a 0.3% increase in international patent applications from 277,182 in 2021 to 278,100 despite the pandemic, conflict in Ukraine, fluctuating energy prices and other adverse economic conditions.  There was a much sharper increase in design registration applications from 6,714 in 2021 to 7,973 in 20...

Standard YouTube Licence Jane Lambert On 26 April 2022, the world celebrated World Intellectual Property Day .  That is a worldwide festival to celebrate the entry into force of the World Intellectual Property Organization Convention , the international agreement that established the World Intellectual Property Organization *"WIPO").   I took part in two of the celebrations: i presented a webinar for the Liverpool Law Society entitled  "Intellectual Property Law after Brexit and onwards”; and  I chaired the Menai Science Park's celebration of the Creativity, Enterprise and innovation of the Young People of Wales. Both events had unexpected last-minute hitches which the organizers took in their stride.  It is fair to say that both events went well, I had originally intended to cover the topics that I had discussed in my presentation  How Brexit has changed IP Law   and handout IP after Brexit .  On the morning of the talk, I learned that there...

Standard YiuRuve Licence Jane Lambert   The World Intellectual Property Organization's  World Intellectual Property Report   appears every two years or so with a different theme.  In 2019 it was  The Geography of Innovation: Local Hotspots, Global Networks . in 2017  Intangible Capital in Global Value Chains , in 2015  Breakthrough Innovation and Economic Growth , in 2013  Brand - Reputation and Image in the Global Marketplace   and in 2011  The Changing Face of Innovation .  The title of the latest report which appeared on 7 April 2022 is The Direction of Innovation. The "direction of innovation" is defined on the first page of the report's executive summary as "the combination or sum of all the decisions individuals, !rms, universities and governments make on which technological opportunities to pursue at any one time."  The report analyses patenting activities over the last century and observes that it comes in phases. ...

WIPO Author Emanuel Berrod Licence CC BY-SA 4.0   Jane Lambert The World Intellectual Property Organization ("WIPO")  describes an intellectual property audit as a tool for identifying "potential IP assets", that is to say, protectable  intellectual assets . An IP audit helps to uncover unused or under-utilized assets, determine ownership of those assets and warn against possible conflicts with intellectual property owners or potential infringers.  Information on the types of IP audit, preparing for such an audit and carrying it out is available on the Intellectual Property page of the WIPO website .  More detailed information can be found in Module 10   of IP Panorama .    The WIPO categorized IP audits as follows: " General-purpose  This is broadest type of IP audit, used by new companies or those considering implementing new IP policies, standards or procedures. It is also suitable for companies implementing new marketing approa...

Standard YouTube Licence Jane Lambert According to the Global Innovation Index 2021   which the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization), the UN agency for intellectual property, published on Monday 20 Sept 2021, the United Kingdom came 4th in the global rankings behind Switzerland, Sweden and the United States of America. Bearing in mind that the UK lies 13th in the number of patent applications to the world's top 20 patent offices according to the World Intellectual Property Indicators   which is also published by the WIPO (see UK Innovation Strategy , 12 Aug 2021 NIPC Inventors Club ), the UK's position near the top of the Global Innovation Index is surprising. The answer is to be found in the WIPO's press release,  Global Innovation Index 2021: Innovation Investments Resilient Despite COVID-19 Pandemic; Switzerland, Sweden, U.S., U.K. and the Republic of Korea Lead Ranking; China Edges Closer to Top 10   PR/2021/880 of 20 Sept 2021: "The Index is built on ...

  Author Marcel Krüger   Licence CC BY-SA 3.0   Source Wikimedia Commons Jane Lambert A few days ago the Intellectual Property Law Association of Nigeria  referred me to a thread of tweets by a Nigerian national who was shocked that a private limited company in the United Kingdom could register the name of some 70 million people as a British trade mark.  S.4 (3) of  The Trade Marks Act 1994  prevents the registration of national emblems and the emblems of certain international organizations as trade marks and s.3 (a) the registration of signs that are contrary to public policy, but it does not specifically exclude the registration of the names of tribes or peoples.  Having previously spoken at a webinar organized by that Nigerian IP Law association I offered to advise and assist it pro bono in this matter. My offer has not yet been accepted. I guess that is because the complainant had already carried out his research and anticipated what my advi...

Standard YouTube Licence Jane Lambert Today is World IP Day , an international festival of innovation and creativity to celebrate the entry into force of the Convention establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization  on 26 April 1970. The World Intellectual Property Organization ("WIPO")  is the UN specialist agency for intellectual property with responsibility for administering most of the world's intellectual property treaties , formulating future policy for the protection of intellectual assets  and resolving intellectual property disputes .  The WIPO has 193 member states  each of which is encouraged to celebrate World IP Day.  Particulars of those celebrations are posted to the World Intellectual Property Day Events Calendar . The United Kingdom is contributing 6 events this year: IP With Guy Fox on 18 April 2021 The Scottish Bar's 13th World IP Conference  organized by the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh on 23 April 2021 Leeds Cent...

Jane Lambert The World Intellectual Property Organization its World Intellectual Property Indicators Report for 2020 on 7 Dec 2020. For the first time since the 2998 world economic downturn, there had been a 3% drop in patenting activity since 2018 but a sustained increase in the number of applications for trade marks, designs and plant breeders' rights.  The reason for the reduction in the number of patent applications from 3.3 million in 2018 to 3,2 million in 2019 is that the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) received 9.2% fewer applications in 2019 than it did in the previous year and the Japan Patent Office ("JPO") 1.8% fewer.  The CNIPA still received 1.2 million patent applications which was more than any other office. The US Patent and Trademark Office came second with 621,453, the JPO third with 307,969, the Korea Intellectual Property Office fourth with 218,975 and the European Patent Office fifth with 181,479.  Intellectual property ...