Ibero-American Meeting of Experts on Industrial Property, Innovation and Gender

The "Ibero-American Meeting of Experts on Industrial Property, Innovation and Gender" was held on June 20 and 21, with the participation of representatives from the National Industrial Property Offices of Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Uruguay, Brazil, Portugal and Spain, as well as from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).

On the first day, technical meetings were held to discuss and exchange experiences on methods and metrics to measure the gender gap in innovation and on actions and initiatives to reduce it.

The following day, the day was opened to the public and three round tables were organized to address the participation of women in the innovation ecosystem from an institutional perspective, to learn about initiatives to promote equality in the private sector and to discuss how to statistically analyze the gender gap.

Marco Alemán, Assistant Director General for Intellectual Property and Innovation Ecosystems at WIPO, who highlighted the need to strengthen the inclusiveness of innovation systems by reducing the gender gap, opened the event.

Marco Alemán, Assistant Director General of the Intellectual Property Sector and Innovation Ecosystems of WIPO, who highlighted the need to strengthen the inclusion of innovation systems by reducing the gender gap, opened the event.

The first of the round tables was made up of Loreto Bresky, Director of the National Institute of Industrial Property of Chile; Cielo Rusinque, Superintendent of Industry and Commerce of Colombia; Luisa Sujey Torres Armendáriz, Director General of the National Intellectual Rights Service of Ecuador; Santiago Martínez, Technical Director of Industrial Property of the National Directorate of Industrial Property of Uruguay; and Elisa Rodríguez, Director of the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office. In her speech, Elisa Rodríguez pointed out that in order to promote the presence of women it is necessary to include the gender perspective in the public agenda, measure, quantify the situation of women in the system, and disseminate the existence of female referents that serve as an inspiration for new generations.

Izaskun Lacunza, director general of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT), moderated the round table "Policies and Initiatives to Promote the Presence of Women in the Innovation Ecosystem", with the participation of Javier Etxabe, head of Industrial Property and Entrepreneurship Support at CSIC; Sandra Llamera, global head of Compliance at PharmaMar; and Carolina Pina, partner in Intellectual Property at Garrigues. The debate covered topics such as the different motivations for women to patent, the importance of equality, conciliation and care policies and the role of women's associations and networks.

Catalina Martínez, researcher at the Institute of Public Goods and Policies of the CSIC, moderated the last panel. Carlos Albert, head of the Statistics Service of the SPTO; Carolina Arias, economist and research expert at the EUIPO and Julio Raffo, head of the Economics of Innovation section at WIPO analyzed the situation and challenges to be faced in the statistical analysis of the gender gap in the field of Industrial Property. It is essential to be able to accurately measure the participation of women in innovation in order to implement corrective initiatives.

To conclude the Meeting, the Undersecretary of Industry and Tourism and President of the SPTO, Pablo Garde, reaffirmed the SPTO's intention to strengthen national and international cooperation to establish collaborative frameworks, to defend and promote the use of Spanish in the field of industrial property and to work for a more inclusive, open and plural system.

More information