http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2021/08/ipkat-in-conversation-with-mr-daren.html
IPKat recently interviewed Mr. Daren Tang, the Director General of WIPO since October 1, 2020. Mr. Tang came to WIPO after serving at the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) for seven years, first as Deputy Chief Executive (three years) followed by four years in the role of Chief Executive. What follows is a report of that interview.
IPKat—One of things that struck IPKat as it followed your tenure at IPOS was the public attention that you gave to the importance of IP as valuable commercial assets, and not merely as legal rights. As the head of a national IP office, you were among the first to do so. How has that experience in Singapore informed your role as the Director General of WIPO?
Mr. Tang—Yes, IPOS looks at IP not simply from the legal point of view, which is important, of course, but from a broader perspective. The ultimate purpose of IP is to change people’s lives for the better, help people grow their businesses, improve society, and contribute to national economic development.
Stated otherwise, we wanted to connect IP to the greater ecosystem, of which it is a part. Maybe this view reflects my background as an economist masquerading as a lawyer, where I chaired the IP aspects of several multilateral trade negotiations. There, I saw how more and more countries see the connection between IP and commerce and finance more broadly, and to look to IP as an important engine of social and economic growth.
This also meant that we at IPOS needed to be nimble as an organization and constantly be on the lookout for the next important thing. I want to bring this orientation to WIPO.
IPKat—Hoping that this is not an unpleasant question in follow-up, have you found a ready audience at WIPO for this?
Mr. Tang— Overall, the reaction has been positive, both at WIPO and among its member states. When I was on the road during the selection process for the new Director General, I was struck by the positive reaction to the call to take WIPO to a broader audience and make it more relevant in our daily lives, in addition to the excellent work that it does at the more technical level of IP rights.
Ultimately, what helps make WIPO more relevant will be exciting for the organization and its members. The challenge is how to implement this vision of IP on the ground to these broader audiences.
IPKat—You are in Singapore in connection with IP Week, the focus of which is on IP for SMEs (“small and medium enterprises”). You have long been outspoken about the importance that IP plays for SMEs. Why is this?
Mr. Tang–SMEs are 90% of businesses in the world, 70% of local employment and 50% of global GDP. SMEs are especially critical for developing counties, where they constitute up to 95% of business activity. Their importance is reflected in the intermediate term plan that was put out by WIPO in June and endorsed by the member states in July.
We strive to make IP more relevant to developing countries and to enable them to create more inclusive IP ecosystems. This means that SMEs must be involved in the post-pandemic economy, or we are missing a huge opportunity.
When we talk about SMEs, we don’t just mean technological innovation. Far from it. A good example is a program that WIPO is carrying out in Uganda. Typically, a program of this type meant giving training for two or three days, and then to pack the bags.
Instead, after providing the initial training, an NGO is remaining in Uganda to continue to provide on the ground training to 11 SMEs (most of whom have been established by women) on how to incorporate IP into their business strategy. IP here more will likely mean trademarks and brands, and how to expand their businesses both locally and abroad.
We see in this as an example what we want to accomplish—to help member states so they and their SMEs are energized.
IPKat—What strikes me from your description about the program in Uganda is that WIPO wishes to be engaged in significant follow-up through third party partners. Can you please elaborate.
Mr. Tang–To be able to deploy assistance to SMEs, we need to provide more impact-based support to facilitate results on the ground. This means that WIPO needs to work with a much broader group of stakeholders, beyond the traditional IP national offices and IP professionals to include others, such as businesses, chambers of commerce, and NGOs.
The goal is to deliver long-term, holistic support. We also need to speak about IP in a down to earth fashion so that SMEs can relate to IP in connection with growing their brands across borders and to prevent copying. In a sense, we need to be bilingual or trilingual in our ability to communicate.
IPKat—In listening to you speak about expanding stakeholders, isn’t there a risk that there will no longer be any boundaries for your mission? How will ensure that mission boundaries will remain?
Mr. Tang–First, we have a mandate from the member states, and we must operate within it. This means that our aspirations must be part of the WIPO intermediate term strategy plan and we are subject to feedback both from the WIPO staff and from national offices.
Second, we are bounded by the expertise and value that we bring to the table. WIPO will work with an expanded body of stakeholders by bringing IP expertise and engaging in partners. This is the value-added that WIPO wants to bring to SMEs with innovative products or creative ideas. We want to be able to show them results on the ground, and to make WIPO more relevant for them and their businesses.
IPKat—This points to an interesting change in access by IP rightsholders to WIPO. In the past, it is fair to say that the large IP rights holders enjoyed direct access to WIPO. Under your vision, we seem to be taking about intermediary service providers from whom SMEs will ultimately benefit, but such SMEs will not likely have direct access to WIPO.
Mr. Tang—Certainly, we cannot directly reach all the hundreds of thousands of SMEs. WIPO will work through the intermediaries, who will vary, so they can successfully interact with SMEs in their particular country. We will equip the intermediaries where we can, such as providing business case studies, or tool kits and diagnostics, to serve the SMEs better. We are not fixated that SMEs will actually know who WIPO is.
IPKat—Will there be benchmarks to measure the degree of success of these programs?
Mr. Tang—KPI’s (“key performer indicators”) were presented to the member states in July. They will be debated again in September and hopefully will be approved. Speaking for myself, I want that, in five years’ time, any SME looking at innovation or creativity will turn to IP, and to intangible assets more broadly, to help grow its business.
Because of the pandemic, we are on the cusp of something different and we cannot maintain doing business as usual. We cannot continue to do just norm-setting or engage in regulatory activities, as important as they are. Perhaps even more, we want IP to work for anyone who is an innovation- or creativity- driven enterprise.
IPKat— Will WIPO have to report metrics to measure the success of these impact activities?
Mr. Tang—As an UN-specialized agency, WIPO does not report to the UN, but we are subject to our internal governance structures and, more generally, to our 193 member states. It is they who give us our “report card”.
IPKat—Permit me to share a long-time concern, namely, how little IP seems to have made an impact on the course of study at the top 10, 20, or 50 MBA programs. When it comes to innovation, do you view them as parallel or complementary to your work at WIPO?
Mr. Tang—I have learned that, from the ecosystem point of view, one cannot move things piecemeal. One major component is how a given country is training for IP. The WIPO Academy trained nearly 150,000 people last year globally, but at the end of the day, that is IP knowledge. To help SMEs, we need to go beyond IP knowledge to impart IP skills.
That means that we need to go beyond law schools and enable one to pick up IP skills in MBA programs and engineering curricula. WIPO academy is trying to skill up its program by partnering with different universities around the world. The more that WIPO become involves with these schools, it can become a source of growth for us. Our goal is for IP to stop being a mere afterthought in MBA and engineering programs, leaving IP to be “picked up” later while on the job. We do not look to these programs to turn out the next generation of IP professionals, but we do want them to confer on their students sufficient practical IP skills to be meaningful in their work or business.
WIPO seeks to go beyond the knowledge provided to IP professionals, which, of course, we will continue to do at the highest level, to be of value to a broader population. For this broader population, the issue for them should not just be dealing with IP, but how to manage innovation.
Even at the level of the large corporation, company leaders view IP as something for the general counsel to take care of, being of little interest for the board of directors or the C-suite, unless IP is core to their business. This may change, since more and more company assets are tied up in intangible assets, including data and know-how. As this occurs, boards and corporate executives will need to see how IP is necessary for them to maximize their corporate objectives.
WIPO needs to raise corporate awareness, not just as a matter of financial accounting, but because IP should be part of their business journey. Maybe it will be just a matter of getting the first few companies on board. Competition will then do the rest and lead to the others to join the bandwagon.
IPKat– Thank you, Director General Tang. IPKat will be keen to follow developments at WIPO and speak with you again in several years to see how your vision is being realized.
Pictures courtesy of WIPO.
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