Singapore, 26 April 2008
CropLife Asia Celebrates Innovation on World Intellectual Property Day
Urgent need to focus on long-term solutions to solve food crisis in Asia and beyond

"Protection of intellectual property is important to encourage the kind of innovations that will be necessary to find long term solutions to the threat of food shortages around the world, especially in Asia." -George Fuller, Executive Director, CropLife Asia

On 26 April 2008, CropLife Asia celebrates the 8th annual World Intellectual Property (IP) Day. This year’s theme is “celebrating innovation and promoting respect for intellectual property.” The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) established the annual event to highlight the important role intellectual property plays in the dynamic world economy. Through activities, events and campaigns, WIPO aims to raise awareness of how patents, copyright, trademark and designs impact daily life and increase understanding of how protecting IP helps promote creativity and innovation.

World IP Day presents an ideal opportunity to celebrate the contributions made by the plant science industry to the sustainable development of societies across the globe. It is also an occasion for many countries to reflect on how adequately their national legislation promotes the respect of intellectual property as they look to the future.

"Protection of intellectual property is important to encourage the kind of innovations that will be necessary to find long term solutions to the threat of food shortages around the world, especially in Asia," said George Fuller, Executive Director of CropLife Asia.

CropLife Asia salutes WIPO’s efforts in raising the profile and understanding of how protecting intellectual property helps promote creativity, innovation, and sustainable growth. As the world confronts new challenges in agricultural production, we are working on developing seeds and plants that are drought and heat resilient and can better deal with the problems of climate change. It is only in an environment of strong intellectual property rules that the plant science industry can develop the technologies which increase the yield and quality of crops around the world.