WIPO Director General Visits Singapore under New Government Programme

September 7, 2016

On August 20-23 WIPO’s Director General, Mr. Francis Gurry, became the first visitor to Singapore under a new Singapore Government programme entitled “The Intellectual Property Distinguished Visitor Programme”. Mr. Gurry’s visit coincided with IP Week@ SG 2016 and culminated in a range of high level meetings and engagements.

The Programme works by bringing leading intellectual property (IP) figures to Singapore to share their expertise and experiences with business and government leaders. Mr. Gurry had a series of productive meetings with senior Singaporean Ministers including the Deputy Prime Minister, the Senior Minister of State, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Solicitor-General.

WIPO Director General and Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratna (Photo: WIPO)

Much discussion focused on Singapore’s performance in the recently released Global Innovation Index (GII) 2016, and the positive contributions of the WIPO Singapore Office (WSO) and the Singapore Office of WIPO’s Arbitration and Mediation Center (AMC) to the IP eco-system of Singapore and the broader ASEAN region.

Leading personages from Singapore’s research and development community also took part in the visit.

Seminar: Creating an IP culture amongst SMEs

As part of Singapore’s IP Week, the WIPO Singapore Office (WSO) organized a two-day Regional Seminar on creating an IP culture amongst SMEs, which featured Mr. Gurry as one of the opening presenters. 14 WIPO member states participated in the event that saw expert speakers discuss different strategies and available tools to increase awareness and understanding of domestic and international IP systems for SMEs.

WIPO Director General Dr. Francis Gurry (front row 5th from left) and participants in the Regional Seminar (Photo: WIPO)

Attendees also had the opportunity to hear Mr. Gurry, along with a host of other IP luminaries, speak at the morning session of the Global Symposium on IP-driven innovation. The Regional Seminar is one of three the WSO organizes annually as part of the collaboration with the Government of Singapore.

Find out more

Singapore Government, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “MFA Press Statement - Courtesy call on Minister by World Intellectual Property Organisation Director-General Francis Gurry”
Singapore Ministry of Law, Press Release “Visit by Dr Francis Gurry, Director General, World Intellectual Property Organization”