World IP Day 2021

Creativity and innovation are two key pillars of intellectual property (IP). The ability to create and share our creativity with one another allows us to continually produce new and novel ways of doing ordinary or even extraordinary things.

As we move into the future - the world is becoming more creative. All you have to do is look at the amount of intellectual property being filed and the number of new products and services that we use. 

I might be showing my age here, but do you remember when you had a humongous CD case in your car? I do. I can’t say I miss those days. I always knew (and I’m not alone) eventually CDs would be replaced by something else. I didn’t exactly know what that something would be, but I knew it was inevitable. Interesting how creativity works that way.

There are two quotes I think about on a somewhat frequent basis. They are more or less an observation focused on consumer behavior, but are the foundations of starting the creative journey that ultimately leads to innovation.

“If I’d asked customers what they wanted they would have told me, ‘A faster horse!’” 

--Henry Ford

If you asked people what they’d want around CDs, they’d say, “A 1000 disc CD player!”

“People don’t know what they want until you show it to them…”

--Steve Jobs

Is it the consumer's responsibility to know you can load thousands of songs to a small hard drive that fits in our pockets? The consumer’s journey and feedback is extremely important to IP innovation. However, I also believe technologists, creatives, researchers, and many more must be willing to perform the research, identify the opportunities, and complete the trials, to disrupt and create change. 

That’s a journey worth reflecting on and celebrating on World IP Day. We have the unique ability to constantly look at ways to improve the human experience or try to make life easier, healthier, and safer for all of us. That’s the beauty of creativity and innovation.