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World Intellectual Property Organization |
History
The World Intellectual Property Organization - referred to in abbreviated form as "WIPO" in English, and "OMPI" in French and Spanish - was established by a convention signed at Stockholm on July 14, 1967, and entitled "Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization." The WIPO Convention entered into force in 1970.
The origins of what is now WIPO go back to 1883 when the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property was adopted and to 1886 when the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works was adopted. Both Conventions provided for the establishment of an "International Bureau" or secretariat. The two Bureaus were united in 1893 and functioned under various names until 1970 when they were replaced by the International Bureau of Intellectual Property (commonly designated as "the International Bureau") by virtue of the WIPO Convention.
WIPO became a specialized agency in the United Nations system of organizations in 1974.
Objectives
The objectives of WIPO are:
(i) to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world through cooperation among States and, where appropriate, in collaboration with any other international organization;
(ii) to ensure administrative cooperation among the intellectual property Unions, that is, the "Unions" created by the Paris and Berne Conventions and several subtreaties concluded by members of the Paris Union.
Intellectual property comprises two main branches: industrial property, chiefly in inventions, trademarks and , and copyright, chiefly in literary, musical, artistic, photographic and audiovisual works.
As to the promotion of the protection of intellectual property throughout the world, WIPO encourages the conclusion of new international treaties and the modernization of national legislations; it gives technical assistance to developing countries; it assembles and disseminates information; it maintains services for facilitating the obtaining of protection of inventions, marks and industrial designs for which protection in several countries is desired and promotes other administrative cooperation among member States.
As to the administrative cooperation among the Unions, WIPO centralizes the administration of the Unions in the International Bureau in Geneva, which is the secretariat of WIPO, and supervises such administration through its various organs. Centralization ensures economy for the member States and the private sector concerned with intellectual property.
On January 1, 1997, WIPO administered the following Unions or treaties (listed in the chronological order of their creation): in the field of industrial property, the Paris Union (for the protection of industrial property), the Madrid Agreement (for the repression of false or deceptive indications of source on goods), the Madrid Union (for the international registration of marks), the Hague Union (for the international deposit of industrial designs), the Nice Union (for the international classification of goods and services for the purposes of the registration of marks), the Lisbon Union (for the protection of appellations of origin and their international registration), the Locarno Union (for the establishment of an international classification for industrial designs), the PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) Union (for cooperation in the filing, searching and examination of international applications for the protection of inventions where such protection is sought in several countries), the IPC (International Patent Classification) Union (for the establishment of worldwide uniformity of patent classification), the Vienna Union (for the establishment of an international classification of the figurative elements of marks), the Budapest Union (for the international recognition of the deposit of microorganisms for the purposes of patent procedure), the Nairobi Treaty (on the protection of the Olympic symbol), the TLT (Trademark Law Treaty) (for the simplification of formalities before trademark registries), and, in the field of copyright or neighboring rights, the Berne Union (for the protection of literary and artistic works), the WCT (WIPO Copyright Treaty) (for the protection of certain rights in certain works), the WPPT (WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty) (for the protection of the rights of performing artists in their live performances and in the aural fixations of their performances and the protection of the rights of producers of phonograms in their phonograms), the Rome Convention (for the protection of performers, producers of phonograms and broadcasting organizations; administered in cooperation with Unesco and the International Labour Office (ILO)), the Geneva Convention (for the protection of producers of phonograms against unauthorized duplication of their phonograms), and the Brussels Convention (relating to the distribution of programme-carrying signals transmitted by satellite).
As far as WIPO's status as a specialized agency of the United Nations is concerned, it is to be noted that, under Article 1 of its Agreement with the United Nations, WIPO is responsible for taking appropriate action in accordance with its basic instrument, and the treaties and agreements administered by it, inter alia, for promoting creative intellectual activity and for facilitating the transfer of technology related to industrial property to the developing countries in order to accelerate their economic, social and cultural development, subject to the competence of the United Nations and its organs, and of other agencies within the United Nations system of organizations.
WIPO has, since January 1, 1996, an Agreement with the World Trade Organization (WTO), which is not a member of the United Nations system of organizations. The Agreement provides for cooperation between the International Bureau of WIPO and the Secretariat of the WTO in respect of assistance to developing countries, in respect of the notification and collection of the intellectual property laws and regulations of WTO Members, and in respect of the notification of emblems of States and international organizations.
In planning and implementing its activities for developing countries, WIPO is guided by the relevant objectives of international cooperation for development, with particular reference to making full use of intellectual property for encouraging domestic creative activity, for facilitating the acquisition of foreign technology and the use of literary and artistic works of foreign origin, and for organizing easier access to the scientific and technological information contained in millions of patent documents. All this should serve the cultural, economic and social development of developing countries.
Organs of WIPO
WIPO has three governing bodies, that is, organs established by the WIPO Convention, the members of which are States. They are the General Assembly (whose members are the States members of WIPO which are also members of the Paris and/or Berne Unions), the Conference (whose members are all the States members of WIPO), the Coordination Committee (whose members are elected among the members of WIPO and the Paris and Berne Unions, Switzerland being an ex officio member; on January 1, 1997, this Committee had 68 members).
The General Assembly and the Conference meet in ordinary session once every two years, whereas the Coordination Committee meets in ordinary session once a year.
The executive head of WIPO is the Director General. The Director General is elected by the General Assembly.
The secretariat of WIPO is called "the International Bureau."
Membership
The following 161 States were party to the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on February 20, 1997 (updated list available):
Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, El Salvador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Holy See, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, United States of America, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Yugoslavia, Zaire, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
The Convention, concluded in 1967, was amended in 1979.
Membership in WIPO is open to any State which is a member of the Paris or Berne Unions and to any other State satisfying one of the following conditions:
(i) it is a member of the United Nations, any of the specialized agencies brought into relationship with the United Nations, or the International Atomic Energy Agency;
(ii) it is a party to the Statute of the International Court of Justice; or
(iii) it has been invited by the General Assembly of WIPO to become a party to the Convention. (States party to the Paris or Berne Conventions may become members of WIPO only if they are already bound by, or concurrently ratify or accede to, at least the administrative provisions of the Stockholm (1967) Act of the Paris Convention or of the Paris (1971) Act of the Berne Convention).
To become a member, a State must deposit an instrument of ratification or accession with the Director General of WIPO at Geneva.