A workshop hosted by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) from February 2 to 5, 2010, brought together over 180 persons from some 32 organizations to promote awareness about accessibility for people with disabilities and to encourage webmasters within the United Nations system and other organizations to implement principles of accessibility in their daily work.
The importance of intellectual property (IP) in promoting innovation and boosting national economic development in Viet Nam topped discussions between Viet Nam’s President Nguyen Minh Triet and WIPO Director General Francis Gurry in Hanoi this week. Mr. Gurry pledged the Organization’s continuing support in further enhancing Viet Nam’s national IP capacity to innovate and achieve sustained economic growth.
A Florida-based company (“Federated Institute for Patent and Trademark Registry”) was this month found to have violated the state's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act by sending out by mass mail misleading “invoices” to patent and trademark applicants—including users of WIPO’s Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) which facilitates the process of seeking international patent protection.
WIPO’s top copyright negotiating forum has agreed to move forward with discussions that could lead to better access to copyright-protected works by the blind, visually impaired (VIP) and other reading-disabled persons. The Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), meeting from December 14 to 18, 2009, decided to accelerate the work on copyright exceptions and limitations for the benefit of persons with reading disabilities.
WIPO Director General Francis Gurry participated on December 16, 2009 in a series of events related to international climate talks in Copenhagen and outlined how WIPO can contribute to international efforts to mitigate climate change. Mr. Gurry underlined that policies that stimulate the creation and diffusion of technology are key elements in developing an effective and practical global response to the threats posed by climate change. He said judicious use of the intellectual property (IP) system can make a positive contribution in crafting the many and diverse technological solutions needed to attenuate the impacts of climate change.
The Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Mr. Francis Gurry, welcomed on December 14, 2009 the ratification by the European Union (EU) of the so-called “Internet Treaties” - the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT) - which establish the basic standards of protection for copyright and related rights in the digital environment.
WIPO’s Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC) reviewed draft provisions for the protection of traditional cultural expressions (TCEs) and traditional knowledge (TK), and considered options for future work on intellectual property (IP) and genetic resources at a meeting from December 7 to 11, 2009, paving the way for mandated negotiations in 2010.
From Monday, December 14, 2009, the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center will launch essentially paperless UDRP procedures. This removes the requirement for mandatory filing and notification of paper pleadings in WIPO cases filed under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP).
The Government of Italy announced on December 10, 2009 that it will build on its extra-budgetary contributions to WIPO with an additional one million Euros. The announcement was made by Italy’s Secretary or State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Vincenzo Scotti, and Mr. Giussepe Tripoli, Chief of Department, Ministry of Economic Development at an international conference in Rome, organized jointly by WIPO and Italy’s National Council for Economies and Labor (CNEL) with the participation of CNEL President Antonio Marzano and WIPO Director General Francis Gurry.
A meeting hosted by WIPO on December 7, 2009 with a number of United Nations (UN) specialized agencies in Geneva concluded with agreement on the need for closer inter-agency collaboration in favor of visually impaired persons (VIPs). During the meeting, WIPO Director General Francis Gurry outlined the Organization’s VIP Initiative, which aims to facilitate and enhance access to literary, artistic and scientific works for the blind, visually impaired and other reading-disable persons and stressed the importance of common activities in this area.