Getting ready to celebrate World IP day and campaign for the Beijing Treaty on April 26

On April 26 every year, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) celebrates the World Intellectual Property Day in order to promote discussion of the role of intellectual property (IP) in encouraging innovation and creativity. FIA and its worldwide membership will join the celebration by calling for the ratification of the WIPO Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances (BTAP), a multilateral treaty acknowledging for the first time the intellectual property rights of performers with regard to their audiovisual performances.

After focussing on music last year, the theme of this year’s celebration is Digital Creativity: Culture re-imagined. As stated by WIPO, ‘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'. 

The Beijing treaty indeed grants performers economic rights to improve their livelihoods and derive an acceptable income from the use of their work, and also awards them moral rights to protect their image and reputation. The WIPO member States may become parties to the Treaty, which shall become binding as a minimum threshold of 30 ratifications is reached. Of course, many more should follow if the Treaty is to become a true global norm. Audiovisual performers and their representative organisations therefore campaign for countries to embrace the provisions in the Treaty and make sure their national laws are in compliance with this new standard.

‘LET’S RATIFY NOW’ is the message performers will be sending out on World IP day by sharing selfie pictures, video messages and flyers on this special occasion. The A4 selfie message and instructions on how to join the campaign are available for download here:

-          A4 Selfie message

-          How to join the campaign_EN