On 26^th April 2018, the Department of Intellectual Property of Thailand (“DIP”) organized the World IP Day Celebration Event under the campaign “Powering Change: Women in innovation and creativity” to celebrate the brilliance, ingenuity, curiosity and courage of the women who are driving change in our world and shaping our common future.  This event was co-organized and sponsored by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) and the Motion Picture Association (“MPA”).

Ms. Chutima Bunyapraphasara, Deputy Minister of Commerce gave an opening remark on the role that intellectual property rights (patents, trademarks, industrial designs, copyright) play in encouraging innovation and creativity.  She emphasized that there would be less innovation if there was no intellectual property protection.

Mr. Edward B. Neubronner, Senior Vice President of the MPA, also gave a speech about how IP protection is important for business.  He said that IP works in some way like a job and revenue security for people especially in creative industries where their income is generated significantly on intellectual property, e.g. movies, songs, books and the like.

Mr. Peter M. Haymond, Chargé d’affaires of U.S. Embassy Bangkok discussed about some female innovators in U.S. as examples of how women can also create innovation which makes huge impact to the society.  He pointed out that innovation can come in many forms and in any industry, not only in the high-technology field.

After the opening remarks, there was a panel discussion on the topic of “How Women’s Creativity Shapes the World”.  There were four female panelists from various industries, including the author of the famous novel and TV drama, the founder of the renowned fabric product company, professor from university and new generation business owner in fashion and design market.  Each of them discussed about how they created their business and how they made their products unique and outstanding in the market.  They also talked about IP infringement problem that they have been facing and how they deal with it.  The event was very fruitful and inspiring.