Geneva, 17 October 2016 – Pursuant to the pilot implementation of Inventor Assistance Program in Colombia, the Philippines and Morocco, WIPO officially launched the WIPO Inventor Assistance Program on 17 October 2016 with the participation of global sponsors.

The program aims to help inventors and small enterprises with limited finances to pursue the patent protection which plays a major role in the successful commercialization of a product or new solution. Qualified attorneys provide free legal advice to inventors who would otherwise be unable to afford the legal costs of obtaining a patent.

“I could certainly say that probono Inventor Assistance Program is one of the most effective projects for the promotion of invention and innovation in the developing and underdeveloped countries” said IFIA President Alireza Rastegar. “We will soon witness a remarkable rise in inventions while the quality of patents improves dramatically. These two improvements encourage the businessmen, investors and the commercializing bodies to license, invest or buy the inventions”.

He also ensured IFIA‘s contribution to the prevalence of this program in the member states to overcome the procedural issues that inventors face during the patent application process which leads to the expansion of innovation in near future.

“The Inventor Assistance Program is a pioneering effort to aid inventors who may lack the resources or knowledge to access the intellectual property system that plays such an important part in boosting innovation across the globe,” said WIPO Director General Francis Gurry. “WIPO is dedicated to ensuring that everyone can benefit from intellectual property, in developed and developing countries alike. This new program is helping and I hope it expands rapidly.”

So far, IFIA Representative in Morocco, Union of Inventors, has attempted to raise awareness in this regard by organizing related workshops alongside the national events and selecting the projects that meet the required criteria to file a patent application for them.

IFIA is dedicated to stimulating an innovative environment where all of the inventors are able to turn their ideas into products and achieve economic benefits from their intellectual properties.

IFIA President, Alireza Rastegar, proposed developing IAP Blog offered by IFIA Office Experts, to make it accessible to a wider range of inventors worldwide.