IP Court Day 2021

dotwhat attended the IP Court Day where this year’s theme was “Restart: IPR as growth engine”. The focus was on the strategic use of IPR and how we can create value, as well as how we can strengthen and prepare businesses for a future where a green agenda and UNs world goals affect large and small businesses, and where unconventional brands take the opportunity to develop a whole new strategy.  

There were a lot of good speakers on the agenda including Daran Tang who’s the new General Director of WIPO, World Intellectual Property Organization. He spoke about the IP area from his point of view, taking his previous profession in IP from Singapore into consideration as well as from his new profession at WIPO. According to Daran Tang there is an increase in registrations, which their latest published report also shows. Seeing IP as part of the solution instead of the challenge has become important. The interest in innovation and creativity is growing worldwide, and it has continued to do so during Covid. The dream of creating the next big innovative thing may be the answer, but also that you should have an online presence – and with more people there will be more IPs.  

One of the important questions that Daran raised during the session was – “What is your identity in the world, and what identity do you want to show the world”. This is a question that resonates with us at dotwhat where we are advising our clients on a daily basis about the importance of online presence, having the right domain that reflects the brand, and making it possible for customers to find you online. 

LEGO, Grundfos and Bech-Bruun

LEGO, Grundfos and Bech-Bruun all presented their views on Strategic use of IPR abroad. LEGO discussed what values are being created, how are they best protected and where and which markets should be protected? As the world changes, so does the strategy, and the lifespan of your products determines the extent to which they need to be protected. Grundfos added very well to this topic by also bringing users’ needs into account. Can we fix it, yes – how do we then protect it from possibly being copied? An IPR lifecycle was shared in regards to idea protection, patent, design, trademark, and brand loyalty to counterfeit. Here, enforcement becomes particularly important – the enforcement of its right to an idea, a product, a design, etc. 

Next one to discuss the topic was Bech Bruun. They took it to the next level discussing how come the IP applications in Denmark is decreasing whereas the applications are rising in China?  

They discussed how we need to invest, focus, and prioritize – the world is global so we need to use a wider lense. When we are online we are everywhere. Awareness happens two places, inside and outside. The world has changed and will change, are you ready for the future and what is about to come? In general things happen very fast and requires that you agile and ready to make changes fast, you need to imagine how your business will and can develop, and you need to accept that your strategy moves from static to dynamic. It places demands on ethics, strategy, and a flexible mindset.  

Right now, we are in a green wave, where the focus is on bringing the UN’s world goals into everything we do, so that we together can contribute to climate improvement but have you considered including your IPR in this as well as your domain portfolio? 

 In the domain world we see a similar trend for domains. Here we see an overall increase in domain registrations worldwide and this is happening year after year despite the Covid situation. 

At dotwhat we have been helping clients for over 20 years with building and maintaining a future-proof domain strategy. When you need to reacquire old IP domains, or assess the level of threat to existing trademarks, or even prevent trademark infringements by others, dotwhat can help. Reach out to us – we would love to hear from you.