WIPO Women and IP Symposium: Efforts towards Institutional Action

From May 11 to 13, 2026, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) hosted its 4th Women and IP Symposium at its headquarters in Geneva and online, bringing together over 165 participants from 80+ global IP offices.

WIPO Deputy Director General Lisa Jorgenson highlighted a persistent structural hurdle: despite equal levels of women in STEM education, women still make up less than 20% of listed inventors globally sitting at just 18% in recent international patent applications. As a solution, the symposium heavily emphasized the use of sex-disaggregated data to design inclusive national policy frameworks.

For instance, the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (OEPM) shared how Spain's national equality law, requiring gender plans for all companies with over 50 employees, structurally transformed their workspace resulting in women now holding a majority of positions, including key managerial roles. A dedicated session focused on Women in AI, Emerging Tech, and the Digital Economy, spotlighting strategies to prevent gender bias in future AI patenting and software innovation, as recent analysis from the World Intellectual Property Organization shows that women are involved in only 23 percent of international patent applications and represent just 13 percent of listed inventors.

Reference: Together, I. & Organization, W. I. (n.d.). The Global Gender Gap in Innovation and Creativity: An International Comparison of the Gender Gap in Global Patenting over Two Decades. https://www.wipo.int/publications/en/details.jsp?id=4653&plang=EN