The 2026 World Intellectual Property Report – Technology on the Move examines how technologies spread — or fail to spread — across firms, households and economies. Invention is only the starting point; what ultimately matters is whether technologies are adopted and used at scale.
This hybrid seminar explores technology diffusion as the critical link between innovation and economic growth. Inventions translate into productivity only when they are widely implemented. Drawing on 250 years of technological change, new global analysis of knowledge flows based on patent and scientific publication data over the past five decades, and case studies in digital, clean and agricultural technologies, WIPR 2026 analyses why diffusion accelerates in some contexts and stalls in others. It also identifies policy areas where barriers can be addressed to enable broader and more inclusive technological uptake.
About the speakers:
Intan Hamdan-Livramento is an economist working in the Department of Economics and Data Analytics at the WIPO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. She is a co-author of WIPO’s analytical publication, the World Intellectual Property Report. Intan is responsible for conducting and supervising areas of the section’s work relating to the economics of innovation and intellectual property (IP). Her current research portfolio include agriculture, digitalization, IP institutions and sustainability. Intan received her PhD in economics from the École Polytechnique Fédéralé de Lausanne. She holds a Diplome d’Études Approfondies in international economics from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, and a Master’s in international law and economics from the World Trade Institute in Berne, Switzerland. She received her undergraduate degree from Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington, USA. Prior to WIPO, Intan worked at the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization.
Julio Raffo is Head of the Innovation Economy Section at the Department of Economics and Data Analytics of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Before joining WIPO, he conducted research at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL, Switzerland); the Institut Français des Relations Internationales (IFRI, France); the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO, USA); and, the Red Iberoamericana/Interamericana de Indicadores de Ciencia y Tecnología (RICYT).
He holds an Economics degree from the Universidad de Buenos Aires, a Master degree in Industrial Organization, Innovations and International Strategy and a PhD in Economics from the Université de Paris Nord. His main research interests are the economics and metrics of innovation and intellectual property, with a particular focus on their intersection with socioeconomic development.
