Every April 26, many organizations around the world celebrate World Intellectual Property (IP) Day to promote discussion of the role of intellectual property in encouraging innovation and creativity.

World IP Day was launched in 2000 by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to promote and protect creative ideas.

Patents, trademarks, copyrights, and other forms of intellectual property enable innovators to protect their ideas. By protecting innovations and creative works, strong intellectual property provisions encourage others to innovate beyond current technologies.

KAUST’s Approach to IP

KAUST promotes an innovation agenda that seeks to create and leverage partnerships, resources, and strategies into products and services that benefit society, especially in the areas of food, water, energy and the environment.

With its world-class labs and facilities, strategically connected innovation and economic development programs, progressive IP policy that creates win-win partnerships, and its community of over 100 nationalities on campus, KAUST represents a complete innovation ecosystem.

An important component of moving innovations from the lab to the marketplace is the ‘technology transfer process.’ KAUST Innovation provides hands-on support to students, professors, and researchers from disclosure review through market intelligence/assessment, IP analytics and patent filing, technology due diligence, and engagement with industry partners to establish new products and companies in the Kingdom and beyond.

The results since 2009 have been impressive, and KAUST Innovation has seen a doubling of its invention disclosure rate in the last fiscal year.

KAUST Activities on World IP Day

This year, KAUST has been invited by King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology and the Saudi Patent Office to host Saudi Arabia’s 2016 World IP Day Symposium. For more information and to register, please click here.