World Intellectual Property Day is a worldwide festival of creativity and innovation that falls on 26 April of every year. This year, as in 2019 and 2020, I have assisted the Menai Science Park to celebrate the day. The World Intellectual Property Office, the UN agency for intellectual property, invites the registration of local celebrations on its website.
The website requires the registration of the language or languages that are to be spoken at the event and provides dropdown menus for the registration of two languages. English is one of the menu choices as are a large number of other languages but Welsh is not one of them.
As I shall be welcoming the audience and thanking the speakers in Welsh as well as English and as all the speakers can present in either language I would have registered both languages if I could. In view of the lacuna I wrote the following email to the organizers in Geneva:
Your drop-down menu of languages does not include Welsh which is an official language in Wales under the provisions of the Welsh Language Act 1967 and subsequent legislation. It is the first language of most residents of Anglesey where the Science Park is located and the second language of many more. Patents can be and have been filed in Welsh and science, engineering and technology courses, as well as the humanities, are taught in Welsh in schools, colleges and universities in Wales. Welsh is also spoken and taught in schools in a number of districts of the province of Chubut in Argentina and in smaller communities in the United States, Canada, Australia and England.
As some of our proceedings on World IP Day will be in Welsh as well as English I invite you to add Welsh to your list of drop-down languages. If the drop-down list cannot be amended quickly I should like you to record manually that Welsh, as well as English, will be spoken at our World IP Day celebrations.
Yesterday I received the following reply from Geneva:
Thank you very much for bringing this to our attention.
I have passed on your suggestion about including Welsh in the drop-down menu to my relevant colleagues, and in the meantime have manually edited your event to reflect that Welsh will be spoken at your events.
We apologize that Welsh is not already an option on the menu, and will take the necessary steps towards amending this."
I checked the register last night and an annotation that our celebrations will be in both languages has been added.
The management of the science park seems satisfied. The lady whom I assist emailed:
Gwych! Canlyniad da iawn, a diolch eto am dod a hyn at sylw World IP Day!
And her manager added:
Canlyniad a hanner!
Da iawn wir!
In case anyone was wondering where Welsh is spoken in England I am thinking of a neighbourhood in Liverpool and some villages in Shropshire. In this regard, I draw a distinction between Welsh-speaking residents of England and English people who have been brought up speaking Welsh in England.
… I’ll have to do my own ‘ymgyrch/ dadlwriaeth’