The Online Video Conference (webinar), entitled “Intellectual Property Offices as Innovation Agencies” was organized by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in cooperation with the Singapore Cooperation Programme (SCP) and with the assistance of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) on 24 August, 2020. There were Mr. Peter Willimott, Senior Program Officer, WIPO Singapore Office, Singapore; Mr. Michal Svantner, Director, Department for Transition and Developed Countries (TDC), World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Geneva; Mr. Simon Seow, Director, IP Policy Division, Ministry of Law, Singapore; Mr. Guy Pessach, Director, SMEs and Entrepreneurship Support Division (SESD), TDC, WIPO, Geneva; Mr. Alfred Radauer, Program Director, IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems, Austria; Ms. Manda Tay, Deputy Director, Strategic Planning & Policy Department, IPOS; Ms. Skye Reeve, Assistant Director, International Policy and Cooperation section, IP Australia, Australia; Dr. Hanusueli Stamm, Chief Economist, Legal and International Affairs, Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property, Bern and more than 60 representatives from IP stakeholders in the Asia-Pacific region attending the webinar. There were 4 representatives of IP Viet Nam attended the webinar live from Hanoi, Viet Nam.
IP has grown in importance as a vital enabler for trading in and engaging in the intangible economy – as a consequence, so has the role of the IP office. 

The core function of an IP office is to administer the national IP system and assess applications for IP rights. However, the role of the IP office of the 21st century is changing.  A modern IP office needs to be equipped to operate in an interconnected and complex international framework and open to cooperate with its stakeholders such as civil society, universities, and small and medium-sized enterprises.
Given that SMEs in particular, can find the IP system technical, legal and complex, new services developed by innovative IP offices are designed to demystify the IP system and make it more understandable and user-friendly to the business sector. 
The webinar focused on the new services that are a vital component offered by a modern IP office in addition to and complementary to its core services. It brought together leading policy makers from national IP offices from Asia-Pacific countries, to discuss and exchange ideas on strategies to ensure IP offices move to become innovation agencies. 

The main content of webinar covers the following topics:  

https://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/details.jsp?meeting_id=58628  

Industrial Property Information Center (IPIC)