A refreshing perspective on World IP Day 2018

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World IP Day Celebrations

World IP Day is celebrated on 26th April each year. WIPO declared the theme for this year “Powering Change : Women in Innovation and Creativity”. It was only apt that the celebrations include some sort of change around IP, innovation and creativity that is driven by women.

Off to Chennai

With these thoughts, I traveled to Chennai for celebrations that coincided with the 15th anniversary of our firm’s presence in Chennai. After a fun celebration last year where I had created a game around IP, this year’s celebrations were enthralling!

MS Bharath curated a wonderful session taking IP mainstream and beautifully connecting IP with dots across multiple disciplines and facets including history, art, architecture, music, respect, culture and technology.

So, let us visit these aspects one by one with an attempt at attributing credit to the speakers who (directly or indirectly) voiced these thoughts.

History

Did you know that structures considered to be architectural marvels created by a very well known architect were in reality based on rejected designs or obscure buildings in other parts of the world.

How did they get away by copying designs of entire buildings? Remember, those were the days when you couldn’t search for images on Google, share them on Facebook or Instagram.

If this sounds archaic, let me remind you that these companies have been around for less than 20,15 and 10 years respectively!

Thoughts inspired by V Sriram

Art and Music

Have you ever thought what an artist performing on the stage sees? How do they perceive the audience and what effect does it have on the performer?

Earlier, they used to be egged on by an enthralled audience, who in turn were mesmerized by the performer. This virtuous cycle and symbiotic relationship thrived between the artist and the audience.

These days, it is a sea of mobiles clicking photos – only to be shared on social media to counter FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). Even worse, the artist does see those ‘stealth mobiles’ jutting out between two seats, live recording the entire show.

If you think there is nothing wrong, because you are not making any commercial gains from the recording, think deeper.

What impact does it have on the performance and creativity of the artist? What does that do to the emotional state of the performer? And what do you get out of it – an addendum to your digital media archive that will never be pulled out again?

Thoughts inspired by Bombay Jayashri

Culture

Our cultural roots can be credited or blamed for a lot of things, depending on which side of the fence you sit on. However, the interface of culture with the concept of IP is intriguing.

Traditional knowledge was passed down generations, typically in close-knit communities. The identity of the individual was veiled and anonymised, while the rights were recognized socially in the name of the community. These values are getting replaced by individualism.

There are other sides to the coin as well. Culturally, there was great respect for teachers who passed on knowledge. Supreme sacrifices were made without hesitation upon a request by the guru – Eklavya being a case in point. This also leads us to the issue of Respect.

Thoughts inspired by Retd. Hon’ble Justice Ms. Prabha Sridevan

Respect

If one plucks a flower from their neighbour’s tree and offers it in a temple, how would you classify that act?

Is it stealing or is it a divine service to the almighty?

What if instead of sharing someone’s post that you like (or worse, even if you don’t), you copy paste the content and merely tag the originator (or worse, if you don’t even do that)? This has become fairly commonplace and a reflection of ourselves as a society.

Is it because of low self-esteem and lack of internal validation? Whatever may be the root cause, it is certainly worth a few moments of introspection, isn’t it?

Even if you are not gaining out of this, do offer some respect. Metaphorically speaking, do mention the neighbour from whose tree you had plucked the flower!

Thoughts inspired by Krishna Shastri Devulapalli

Back to the Future : Technology and AI

How can we leave behind technology, even if the discussion is around right brained creativity? After all, Creative AI is a thing, isn’t it?

The speakers spoke earlier about how social media and mobiles are playing havoc with the works of creators and performers, even without the perpetrators realizing the impact.

I thought of taking the discussion one step further. What will be the implications, if someone trains a Deep Learning model based on a performer’s works and creates something ‘new’ based on patterns that advanced AI algorithms have mined?

What are the respective rights of the performer, the inanimate software product and the data scientist? This may be a difficult question to answer.

However, since you have been kind enough to read so far, I will pose an easier question – How will this make the original artist feel?

Some of these thoughts may have riled a few people in the audience; so I will not attribute this section to anyone else 🙂