ENEVA, 26th April, 2023 (WAM) Women account for only around one in five designers behind the look and feel of products from simple packaging to mobile phones and automotive exteriors, according to new World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) data released on World Intellectual Property Day, underlining the need to ramp up efforts to bridge a “gender gap” in intellectual property (IP)-backed innovation. World IP Day is celebrated each 26th April, with the 2023 campaign theme entitled “Women and IP: Accelerating innovation and creativity.” Previous findings show that only about 16% of inventors listed in international patent applications one metric of human innovation are women, which is now mirrored by new data on women’s participation in industrial design applications. ccording to preliminary statistics on design activity across the globe in 2022, women accounted for around 21 percent of listed designers in global industrial design applications found in WIPO’s Global Design Database, which covers some 80% of total worldwide design activity. While that figure has doubled since 2001, parity with men is not expected until 2099 at current rates. This “gender gap,” now evidenced in two important IP rights, underscores the need for collective action to ensure that women’s potential across the globe is tapped for humanity’s collective benefit. Data on applications relating to industrial design rights and patent rights provide important benchmarks for measuring different types of innovation activities in the global economy. Patent rights provide protection for cutting-edge product or process inventions while industrial designs rights protect the aesthetic design of goods. Both indicators signal the ability of inventors and designers individuals, companies and organizations to benefit from the protection of their ideas. The low representation of women in industrial design and patent applications suggests a persistent gender gap across innovation measures. This is concerning and indicates that women’s innovative potential is underutilized, resulting in a loss for everyone. Women’s participation in design activity as reflected in WIPO’s Global Design Database has been increasing over the past two decades, with the share of listed women designers doubled from 10 percent to 20 percent from 2001 to 2020. pplicants from Asia, North America and Europe are the main contributors of industrial designs and, in turn, the regions with the highest number of women designers. The participation of women designers has increased across these three regions over the last two decades. While Asia and Europe have observed the largest increase in the share of women’s participation during the period, these regions have also observed the largest slowdown over the last five years. In terms of specialisation, the textiles and accessories sector shows the highest share of women designers listed in industrial design applications, with advertising and packaging not far behind.
Source: Emirates News Agency (WAM)
