This week on IPWatchdog Unleashed, our host and the founder of IPWatchdog, Gene Quinn, speaks with Martin Correa. Correa, whose work at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) focuses on the future of intellectual property.

The conversation examines the danger of viewing IP solely as a legal instrument or barrier, rather than as infrastructure supporting investment, innovation, economic development, and public welfare. Correa and Quinn discuss how IP leaders can identify high-impact uncertainties, test strategy against multiple plausible futures, and remain prepared as technology, economics, law, and public attitudes evolve.

Correa then puts Quinn through WIPO’s seven-question foresight exercise, shifting the discussion to the IP system of 2040. Their exchange addresses the durability of the U.S. patent system, declining respect for property rights, the cost and fragmentation of global patent protection, international harmonization, and the risk that innovators will increasingly rely on trade secrets. The result is a timely examination of how public education, policymaker engagement, and decisions made today will determine whether IP continues to drive innovation tomorrow.

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