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World Intellectual Property Organization

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

is one of the 17 specialized agencies of the United
Nations.
WIPO was created in 1967 "to encourage creative
activity, to promote the protection of intellectual property
throughout the world."[1]

World Intellectual Property

Organization
World Intellectual Property Organization
Organisation mondiale de la proprit intellectuelle
(French)

WIPO currently has 188 member states,[2] administers 26

international treaties,[3] and is headquartered in Geneva,
Switzerland. The current Director-General of WIPO is
Francis Gurry, who took office on October 1, 2008.[4] 186
of the UN Members as well as the Holy See and Niue are
Members of WIPO. Non-members are the states of
Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru,
Palau, Solomon Islands, South Sudan and Timor-Leste.
Palestine has observer status.[5]

Contents
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

History
Information network
Economics and Statistics Division
Directors-General
See also
References
External links

History
The predecessor to WIPO was the BIRPI (Bureaux
Internationaux Runis pour la Protection de la Proprit
Intellectuelle, French acronym for United International
Bureaux for the Protection of Intellectual Property),
which had been established in 1893 to administer the
Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and
Artistic Works and the Paris Convention for the
Protection of Industrial Property.

WIPO headquarters in Geneva

Abbreviation

WIPO, OMPI

Formation

July 14, 1967

Type

Specialized Agency

Legal status

Active

Headquarters

Geneva, Switzerland

Head

Director-General of WIPO Francis

Gurry

Website

www.wipo.int
(http://www.wipo.int/)

WIPO was formally created by the Convention

Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization,
which entered into force on April 26, 1970. Under Article 3 of this Convention, WIPO seeks to "promote the
protection of intellectual property throughout the world." WIPO became a specialized agency of the UN in
1974. The Agreement between the United Nations and the World Intellectual Property Organization[6] notes
in Article 1 that WIPO is responsible

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"for promoting creative intellectual activity and for facilitating

the transfer of technology related to industrial property to the
developing countries in order to accelerate economic, social
and cultural development, subject to the competence and
responsibilities of the United Nations and its organs,
particularly the United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development, the United Nations Development Programme
and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization,
as well as of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization and of other agencies within the United
Nations system."

WIPO members
Members
Non-members

The Agreement marked a transition for WIPO from the mandate it

inherited in 1967 from BIRPI, to promote the protection of
intellectual property, to one that involved the more complex task of
promoting technology transfer and economic development.[7]
Unlike other branches of the United Nations, WIPO has significant
financial resources independent of the contributions from its
Member States. In 2006, over 90 percent of its income of just over
CHF 250 million[8] was expected to be generated from the collection
of fees by the International Bureau (IB) under the intellectual
property application and registration systems which it administers
(the Patent Cooperation Treaty, the Madrid system for trade marks
and the Hague system for industrial designs).

WIPO headquarters, Geneva.

In October 2004, WIPO agreed to adopt a proposal offered by

Argentina and Brazil, the "Proposal for the Establishment of a
Development Agenda for WIPO" - from the Geneva Declaration on
the Future of the World Intellectual Property Organization.[9] This
proposal was well supported by developing countries. The agreed
"WIPO Development Agenda"[10] (composed of over 45
Francis Gurry in 2011
recommendations) was the culmination of a long process of
transformation for the organization from one that had historically
been primarily aimed at protecting the interests of rightholders, to one that has increasingly incorporated the
interests of other stakeholders in the international intellectual property system as well as integrating into the
broader corpus of international law on human rights, environment and economic cooperation.
A number of civil society bodies have been working on a draft Access to Knowledge (A2K)[11] treaty which
they would like to see introduced.
In December 2011, WIPO published its first World Intellectual Property Report on the Changing Face of
Innovation, the first such report of the new Office of the Chief Economist.[12] WIPO is also a co-publisher
of the Global Innovation Index.[13]

Information network
WIPO has established WIPOnet, a global information network. The project seeks to link over 300
intellectual property offices (IP offices) in all WIPO Member States. In addition to providing a means of
secure communication among all connected parties, WIPOnet is the foundation for WIPO's intellectual
property services.[14]

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Economics and Statistics Division

The Economics and Statistics Division is responsible for collecting statistics on IP activity worldwide and
making these statistics available to the public. In addition, the Division carries out economic analysis on
how IP and innovation policy choices affect economic performance.[15]

Directors-General
1st: Georg Bodenhausen, 19701973
2nd: rpd Bogsch, 19731997
3rd: Kamil Idris, 19972008
4th: Francis Gurry, 2008present

See also
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
List of parties to international copyright agreements
Member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization
Substantive Patent Law Treaty (SPLT)
Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy
United States and the United Nations
World Intellectual Property Day (April 26)
WIPO Lex
World Intellectual Property Organization treaties

References
1. "Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization signed at Stockholm on July 14, 1967,
Preamble, second paragraph". Wipo.int.
2. WIPO. "List of members states of WIPO". Wipo.int. Retrieved 2014-12-20.
3. WIPO. "Treaties administered by WIPO - Consulted June 26, 2013". Wipo.int. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
4. "Francis Gurry is appointed Director General of WIPO - News Archive 2008". Wipo.int. Retrieved September 27,
2008.
5. WIPO (2011-11-25). "Palestine WIPO status". Wipo.int. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
6. WIPO. "Agreement between the United Nations and the World Intellectual Property Organization". Wipo.int.
Retrieved 2013-10-18.
7. "Shabalala et al. A Citizen's Guide to WIPO" (PDF). Ciel.org. 2007. p. 12.
8. "WO/PBC/8/3 - Proposed program and budget 2006/2007 estimates 456m fee income out of total 531m income
for the biennium" (PDF). Wipo.int.
9. "Consumer Project on Technology web site, ''Geneva Declaration on the Future of the World Intellectual Property
Organization''". Cptech.org. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
10. WIPO (2009-08-06). "The 45 Adopted Recommendations under the WIPO Development Agenda". Wipo.int.
Retrieved 2013-10-18.
11. "Consumer Project on Technology web site, ''Access to Knowledge (A2K)". Cptech.org. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
12. WIPO (2011-11-14). "World Intellectual Property Report". Wipo.int. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
13. "The Global Innovation Index 2014 - The Human Factor in Innovation". Global Innovation Index.
14. "World Intellectual Property Organization". United Nations Multilingual Terminology Database,. Retrieved
February 24, 2008.
15. http://www.wipo.int/about-wipo/en/activities_by_unit/units/econ_stat.html

External links
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Official website (http://www.wipo.int/)

List of member states (http://www.wipo.int
/members/en/)
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