The General Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), at its thirty-first session (September 27 to October 25, 2004), approved the convening of a Diplomatic Conference for the Adoption of a Revised Trademark Law Treaty (TLT), to take place from March 13 to 31, 2006 (document WO/GA/31/15, paragraph 73.
Subsequently to that decision, the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical Indications (SCT) held its thirteenth and fourteenth sessions in October 2004 and April 2005, respectively, and approved by consensus the texts of the draft revised Trademark Law Treaty and draft Regulations, which will constitute the Basic Proposal for discussion at the Diplomatic Conference.
Back-to-back with the fourteenth session of the SCT, the Preparatory Meeting for the Diplomatic Conference for the Adoption of a Revised Trademark Law Treaty was held in Geneva on April 25 and 26, 2005. At that meeting, the Government of Singapore declared that Singapore sought the privilege of hosting the Diplomatic Conference. The decision over the venue of the Diplomatic Conference was referred to the WIPO General Assembly (document TLT/R/PM/3, paragraph 30).
At its thirty-second session (September 26 to October 5, 2005), the WIPO General Assembly decided to accept the offer of the Government of Singapore to host the Diplomatic Conference.
As decided by the Preparatory Meeting, all Member States of WIPO will be invited to be represented in the Diplomatic Conference by a delegation; the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI), the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) and the European Community (EC) will be invited to be represented by a special member delegation; States that are not members of WIPO but are members of the United Nations will be invited to participate as observers, as well as all organizations having permanent observer status with the SCT (document TLT/R/PM/3, page 11).
The Conference will take place at the Suntec Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre, and will open at 6 p.m. on March 13, 2006.