Giving female inventors a place in the globalized world

On the occasion of World Intellectual Property Day (IPDay - April 26), a reporter from the Communist Party of Vietnam Electronic Newspaper had an interview with Mr. Nguyen Van Bay, Deputy Director of the Department of Intellectual Property, Ministry of Science and Technology, about the theme of this year's IPDay: "Women with intellectual property - Promoting innovation and creativity".

Reporter (PV): In 2023, the theme of World Intellectual Property Day is: “Women and Intellectual Property - Promoting Innovation”. Can you share specifically about the message of this theme?

Mr. Nguyen Van Bay : The theme of World Intellectual Property Day 2023 is: "Women with Intellectual Property - Promoting Innovation" focusing on honoring the role of women for their positive contributions in the field of intellectual property and innovation.

It has been 5 years since the message of World Intellectual Property Day 2018: “Powering change - Women and innovation” was launched, 2023 is the time for us to look back and honor women's contributions to socio -economic development through encouraging and supporting participation in intellectual property activities. At the same time, this year's theme also emphasizes that women's participation is important to ensuring gender equality in the field of intellectual property, that women always have full capacity, opportunities and tools to access and exercise their intellectual property rights.

Encouraging more women to use the intellectual property system to protect and add value will create a favorable environment to promote innovation, which is the driving force for a new growth cycle.

PV : In order to promote creativity and encourage women to learn and effectively use intellectual property tools, and promote women's participation in the intellectual property system, what solutions are needed, sir?

Mr. Nguyen Van Bay : Intellectual property is an effective tool to support creators in the fields of industry, literature and art. Therefore, we can initially focus on improving the capacity of women working in these fields. Using intellectual property to exploit and bring benefits to female scientists, authors and business owners will inspire and continue to spread widely to many other professions and fields.

In addition, as a large segment of consumers in the market, women also need to improve their understanding of intellectual property related to counterfeit and fake goods. Therefore, it is necessary to promote propaganda about intellectual property to women to contribute to improving the efficiency of exploiting and enforcing intellectual property rights, and at the same time forming an intellectual property culture for the community in general.

In addition to propaganda work, consulting activities, programs, and projects supporting research, production, and business activities also need to prioritize women. For example, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) or international organizations often have programs to support intellectual property and creative startups for female scientists and businesswomen.

PV: Can you tell us? What policies and support programs does Vietnam have for female scientists, innovators, inventors, women-owned businesses or cooperatives, including in the field of intellectual property? And how effective are those policies and programs?

Mr. Nguyen Van Bay : The promulgation of the Law on Gender Equality in 2006 has an important meaning in ensuring gender equality in most areas of social life, helping women to be equal in accessing and applying science and technology; equal in accessing training courses on science and technology, disseminating the results of scientific and technological research and inventions.

Clause 7, Article 4 of the 2019 Labor Code stipulates the labor regime and social policies to protect female workers, workers with disabilities, elderly workers, and underage workers.

Fully aware of the fact that there are still some gender inequalities in research and innovation with many difficulties that scientists, innovators and female entrepreneurs still have to face, the Vietnamese Government has been issuing many policies and programs to support female scientists, female innovators, female inventors, enterprises or cooperatives owned by women, including in the field of intellectual property. One of the policies to mention is Project 939 on Supporting Women's Start-ups for the period 2017 - 2025. Ms. Ton Ngoc Hanh, Vice President of the Vietnam Women's Union, said that after 4 years of implementing this project, there have been nearly 3,000 ideas and start-up projects participating in the Women's Start-up Competition at the Central level, more than 72,000 women starting up, 1,451 enterprises and 523 cooperatives owned by women newly established with the support of the Project.

In practice, over the past years, state management agencies on intellectual property from central to local levels have always focused on implementing intellectual property activities in coordination with women's organizations, specifically conferences, seminars, and talks with the Vietnam Women's Union, Women's Unions of provinces and cities, the Vietnam Women's Academy, and Women's Intellectual Associations of ministries and branches. These activities have always been highly appreciated by scientists, female intellectuals and businesswomen for the information shared.

PV : In your opinion, what additional policies are needed to narrow the gap and create opportunities for female scientists and creative businesswomen to access the intellectual property system so that they can compete fairly both domestically and internationally?

Mr. Nguyen Van Bay : To create conditions for women to participate in scientific and technological research activities, access the intellectual property system, and increase gender equality competitiveness domestically and internationally, it is necessary to study and propose amendments to domestic legal regulations and policies to help female inventors and entrepreneurs gain a suitable position in the context of constantly developing globalization. These legal regulations and policies need to be developed and specified in the direction of promoting gender equality, with strong enough incentives to motivate and encourage female scientists to do research. It is necessary to supplement many national-level scientific and technological programs applicable to female scientists with outstanding achievements to encourage the development of female scientists.

At the same time, it is necessary to have a policy of training and fostering women to prioritize scientific and technological research activities and access to the intellectual property system. Support the provision of training programs for Vietnamese women to narrow the gap, create opportunities to access the intellectual property system for female scientists and creative businesswomen so that they can compete fairly at the international level. At the same time, cooperate with governments, public organizations, or other organizations and associations to carry out related activities to support female inventors and businessmen such as: Forums, seminars, international exhibitions on women's inventions, etc.

PV : Thank you very much!

Source