It's that time of year again

Don't worry, it's not 35 shopping days left until Christmas. However, April 26 is now clearly visible on the horizon and with it, World IP Day.

This year's theme is Digital Creativity: Culture Reimagined, of which more below. The date is a convenient hook for various organisations to hang an IP-related event on, to increase the public's understanding of IP, and to have a knees-up of sorts with like-minded individuals, so the IPKat is all in favour of the concept.

To find out what's on in your locality, there's a Google map which one would expect to fill up with pins as the date approaches. Currently there are eleven events listed in Europe, four of which are in the UK. There's also a Facebook page, and a dedicated email address to send your own events to: worldipday@wipo.int.

Kat friend Graeme McWilliams has set the ball rolling with news of two events in Scotland: a dinner hosted by LES Scotland on the 21st April and a lunchtime event hosted by the Faculty of Advocates the following day. Full details of both can be found, along with a host of other IP-related happenings, on the IPKat's events page.

But back to the theme of this year's IP Day. Nobody could accuse the organisers of failing to engage fully in the spirit of the "digital creativity" theme. The IPKat suspects that the first draft of what follows was sent back to the author with a large annotation scrawled across it in red ink: "More creativity! More imagination! Really indulge yourself!". And so, on the normally sober WIPO website the IPKat reads:

Sunrise in Caracas, a writer awakens, inspired, and reaches for her tablet. Her idea lands with her collaborator in London, rehearsing in a West End theatre. Words, images, plot-lines and dialogue flash back and forth. A treatment for a new series – a global pandemic, drug cartels, high level corruption – hits the inbox of a Hollywood showrunner, who calls contacts in Dubai, Mumbai, Beijing and Berlin. Deals are cut, funds secured, distribution channels agreed.

Shooting begins: Outside scenes in Ouarzazate, interiors in Brooklyn, special effects from Bangkok. A soundtrack is added: a sizzling gumbo of rhythms from Rio and horns from Lagos, with a topping of Prague strings. The theme tune goes viral as fans stream the show on screens of every size, in every corner of the globe...

Films, TV, music, books, art, video-games –cultural works, in short– have long crossed borders. But the WiFi era is transforming how consumable culture is created, distributed and enjoyed in markets that are expanding far beyond national boundaries. Ever more accessible digital technologies have swept away physical constraints, placing a world of cross-cultural collaboration at the fingertips of every artist and creator, feeding the imagination in new ways. And with this blooming of digital creativity comes the boon to the digital consumer. We read, watch and listen to the works of countless creators across the world wherever, whenever and however we want. 

Reimagining culture – how we create it, how we access it, and how we finance it – is not without challenges. And the challenge of a flexible, adaptive intellectual property system is to help ensure that the artists and creative industries in our digital universe can be properly paid for their work, so they can keep creating. So for World IP Day this year, we’re exploring some of the issues surrounding our cultural future. We’ll be talking to experts on creativity in the digital market, and to creators themselves, to find out where they think we’re heading. Join us on Facebook as the story unfolds. Season One is just starting.