Checking in with the Champions: 2016 IP Champions for Excellence in Innovation
Innovation and entrepreneurship are crucial to economic growth and stability. The global community has long depended on spirited and creative individuals to build and sustain a number of different economy sectors, like science, technology, healthcare, and business. These individuals drive job creation and deliver life-changing – even life-saving – products and services for consumers across the globe.
Last year, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Global Intellectual Property Center awarded the 2016 IP Champion Award for Excellence in Innovation to both Microsoft for its “Make What’s Next” campaign and to Pfizer’s Ibrance Team for creating a groundbreaking breast cancer treatment.
Learn more about our 2016 IP Champions for Excellence in Innovation below!
Last year, Microsoft launched its “Make What’s Next” campaign to encourage women and girls to become the world’s next best inventors. The campaign faced an uphill battle: only 7.5 percent of all patents are held by women and girls. Fortunately, the campaign also roused a powerful response. Microsoft introduced a function of the “Make What’s Next” campaign to offer female inventors support and mentorship during the patent application process. Microsoft has aided hundreds of inventors and expanded the power of innovation to inspire a new community of women and girls in STEM.
Pfizer’s Ibrance Team faced an uphill battle of its own: about 1 in 8 U.S. women will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime. So, in 2016, U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc. announced that its revolutionary breast cancer treatment, Ibrance, had secured approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In fact, Ibrance received accelerated approval, a nod at the first-in-class ability of the treatment to delay the progression of breast cancer. This cutting-edge innovation shows: IP saves lives.
IP-intensive innovation is driving the solutions to our biggest global challenges. Whose innovative spirit will inspire you at this year’s IP Champions Gala? Join us on November 14 to honor our 2017 awardees.
