We
hear a great deal about innovation these days, and for good reason.
Innovation lies at the heart of our social and economic wellbeing.

最近，创新一词常在我们的耳畔响起，这不无道理。创新是我们社会和经济福祉的核心。

Innovation
– and the technological progress it represents – makes a significant
contribution to economic growth and creates opportunities for new and
better jobs.

创新及其所代表的技术进步，为经济增长做出了重大贡献，并且创造了更新和更好的就业岗位。

We
often do not take enough time to think about the many ways in which
innovation improves the quality of our lives. One only has to compare
the way we live today with the way we lived 100 years ago. Over the past
century, we have seen an extraordinary transformation in the quality of
our material lives, thanks to the introduction of countless new and
improved technologies and products. And with extraordinary new
technologies such as virtual reality, artificial intelligence, 3D
printing, neuromorphic computer chips, nanotechnology, robotics, CRISPR
gene-editing and more coming on stream, the prospects for further
progress are very bright.

我们经常无暇思考多年来创新如何改善了我们的生活品质。只要把今天的生活与百年前相比，便可知道。过去一百年间，由于推出了经过改进的无数新技术和新产品，我们的物质生活品质也发生了非凡的转变。随着虚拟现实、人工智能、3D打印、神经元计算机芯片、纳米技术、机器人技术、CRISPR基因编辑等超凡的新技术以及未来更多技术的出现，实现进一步发展的前景一片光明。

What, you may ask, does intellectual property have to do with all of this?

您可能会问，知识产权与所有这些有什么关系？

Intellectual
property is a crucial part of a successful innovation system. It
provides a return for those who take the risk to introduce the “new” –
in terms of products and services – into the economy. It provides a
framework for the rather difficult and challenging journey that any idea
has to undertake before becoming a commercially available product or
service.

知识产权是成功创新体系的关键组成部分。它为冒险将“新”产品和服务推入经济的人提供回报。它为任何创意在成为可商业开发的产品或服务前必须历经的艰难和挑战之旅提供了框架。

With
this year’s World Intellectual Property Day campaign, we are
celebrating innovation and how it improves our lives.  We are also
celebrating all the risk-takers, all those who have dared to bring about
positive change through innovation.

在今年的世界知识产权日活动中，我们将为创新及其为我们生活带来的改善喝彩。我们也将为所有勇于冒险的人喝彩，是他们敢于通过创新带来积极变化。

This
year’s campaign is an opportunity for us all to think about what it
actually takes to invent something and the challenges associated with
that process. It is also a chance for us to consider how we can make
innovation really work for the benefit of the whole of society.

今年的活动是一个契机，让我们所有人思考发明实际所需的成本以及与此过程相关的挑战。它也提供了契机，让我们思考如何使创新发挥作用，真正造福于全社会。

I wish you all a very happy, fruitful and innovative World Intellectual Property Day.

祝大家度过一个欢乐并富有收获和创意的世界知识产权日。