April 12, 2019 Celebrate World IP Day 2019 with the Copyright Office

Press Contact: Bill Ryan (202) 707-1940
Public Contact: Catherine Rowland (202) 707-0956
Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov

The U.S. Copyright Office will celebrate World Intellectual Property Day with special events on April 25 and 27. This year’s theme, as announced by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), is “Reach for Gold: IP and Sports.”

The first program will explore the unique and sometimes surprising relationship between sports and copyright on Thursday, April 25, 2019, at 2 p.m. eastern time in the historic Coolidge Auditorium in the Thomas Jefferson Building in Washington, D.C. The program will discuss the different points at which sports and copyright intersect, including how people watch games from home, the various ways athletes work with copyright to develop merchandise and more, and the burgeoning world of esports.

Featured speakers include Derrick Heggans, founder and CEO of Global Sports and Entertainment Business Academy (GSB Academy); Delara Derakhshani, counsel, tech policy, Entertainment Software Association; and Robert Garrett, senior counsel, Arnold & Porter.

The event will also be live-streamed on the Copyright Office YouTube site (with captions) at youtube.com/uscopyrightoffice.

The Copyright Office will continue its celebration of World IP Day on Saturday, April 27, at 10:30 a.m. with a special copyright-focused Story Time at the Young Readers Center at the Library of Congress. Copyright concepts will be introduced by song, stories and activities highlighting the power of taking ideas and making them into creative works. This event is great for families with children from 5 to 10 years old.

Tickets are available for these free events, but not required. Tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Entry is not guaranteed.

World Intellectual Property Day, observed on April 26 since 2000, marks the date in 1970 when the WIPO Convention came into force. The anniversary of this occasion is observed as a way of promoting and increasing general understanding of intellectual property. This program is part of the Copyright Matters lecture series and is free and open to the public.  

Please visit the Copyright Office World IP Day website to register for the events and to stay up-to-date about these programs and speakers

The Copyright Office is the principal federal entity charged by statute with the administration of the U.S. copyright law. Among other statutory duties, the Register oversees the copyright registration and recordation systems of the United States, manages statutory royalty fees totaling more than a billion dollars annually, advises Congress on domestic and international copyright policy issues, and provides support on copyright matters to courts and executive branch agencies.

###

PR 19-038
2019-04-12
ISSN 0731-3527