IIPSJ Oral Statement to the 65th World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) General Assemblies (GA)

July 9-17, 2024

Honorable Chair, Director General, distinguished Delegates, thank you for the floor.

Institute for IP and Social Justice stresses that IP systems must balance economic and
social aims equally, in a manner that offers access, inclusion, and empowerment for all.

WIPO’s IP Gender Action Plan should include initiatives designed to also address
intersectional discrimination and misogyny in the creative and innovative ecosystems. We
stress the need to move away from projects that prioritize only “getting more women into the
system.” Intersectional discrimination and misogyny are systemic barriers that must be
corrected. IP laws must form part of the solution.

Efforts to address intersectional discrimination must also be at the heart of data collection
projects. More should be done to develop methodologies for non-registrable IP rights
(mainly, copyright); and methodologies beyond the mere binary counting of genders, so that
we also include gender-diverse people.

For more, please see our written statement.

Prepared by Dr. Metka Potočnik
IIPSJ Associate Director for International Programs