Polish Patent Office Symposium – Keynote speeches

Anna Azari and Alicja Adamczak

The symposium was opened with a welcome speech by Dr. Alicja Adamczak, President of the Patent Office, Polish lawyer and patent attorney. Next speaker was Dr Francis Gurry, Director General of World Inellectual Property Organization, who unfortunately could not attend the symposium in person. In this connection, a video was played, on which Dr. Francis Gurry spoke about start-ups and the importance of intellectual property, which was a good introduction to the symposium.

 One of the speakers was the Israeli Ambassador of the State of Israel, Anna Azari, who presented Israel’s innovation policy. It is worth emphasising that almost every innovation in Israel starts in the army. In her speech she spoke about a cyber-security project, one of the aims of which was to find and catch paedophiles.
Sławomir Tokarski, Director of Innovation and Advanced Manufacturing European Comission, also made his speech, saying that companies do not use intellectual property because they do not see the potential. He also stressed the importance of an agreement between patent holders, the advertising industry and the financial sector. In addition, he noted that patents make it easier for small businesses to enter the market.

Sławomir Tokarski and Alicja Adamczak

Then Bente Waldstrom from the European Union Intellectual Property Office took place on the pulpit, whose message concerning the approach to start-ups is contained in the question: Have we walked a mile in their shoes? In addition, she presented a SME panel which they created to help small and medium-sized enterprises, including of course start-ups.
At the end of this part of the symposium, UPRP President Alicja Adamczak presented statistics on intellectual property rights: 60 million exclusive rights in use including 35 million patents and 20 million trademarks. She noted that the highest number of applications came from China and that Poland is at the top of the list of countries in terms of daily applications with 65 applications per day.