Director General Daren Tang Confers with Hungary’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade

October 13, 2020

On October 13, 2020, WIPO Director General Daren Tang met with Hungary’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó to take stock of WIPO’s activities in support of the development of Hungary’s IP system, further cooperation in the area of IP and more general matters relating to multilateral cooperation. 

On behalf of the Hungarian Government, the Minister congratulated the Director General on the recent assumption of his functions, and looked forward to strengthening the collaboration between Hungary and WIPO under his leadership.   Mr. Tang began his six-year mandate as Director General on October 1, 2020.

The discussion, during a working breakfast, touched on a number of issues relating to bilateral cooperation between WIPO and Hungary, including joint efforts to promote better use of the IP system by SMEs and Universities, focusing on IP commercialization and IP financing.  They also agreed to begin a strategic dialogue on the innovation performance of Hungary in the framework of the Global Innovation Index which uses 80 indicators to assess a country’s innovation performance.

Mr. Tang and Mr. Szijjártó also discussed the importance of the modernizing the framework for the protection of geographical indications and appellations of origin.  The Minister informed the Director General that Hungary is in the last stages of the ratification process of the Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement on Appellations of Origin and Geographical Indications.  The Minister said protecting the country’s GIs, like Tokaj (wine), Herend (porcelain), Kalocsa (paprika) is a strategic priority. He expected the ratification process to be completed in early spring 2021.

Minister Szijjártó also invited the Director General to pay an official visit to Budapest in 2021.