WIPO Director General Francis Gurry met representatives of India’s visually impaired (VIP) community at a conference on the “Right to Read of persons with print disabilities and copyright challenges” organized by the VIP community in cooperation with the Government of India in New Delhi on November 11, 2009, and reaffirmed WIPO’s commitment to supporting international attempts to improve access to copyright protected works by visually impaired persons (VIPs). “Let me assure you that this is a priority area for the World Intellectual Property Organization,” Mr. Gurry said.
The need for a balance in the intellectual property (IP) system between effective incentives for innovation and the diffusion of the benefits of innovation, as well as the interface between IP and public policy objectives, such as the environment and public health was emphasized by India’s Minister for Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma at the opening of the 5th International Forum on Creativity and Inventions - A Better Future for Humanity in the 21st Century, on November 11, 2009 in New Delhi. WIPO Director General Francis Gurry also underlined the need for balance and outlined the challenges and opportunities facing the IP community in a rapidly evolving economic and technological environment.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is hosting an international conference in Geneva on November 5 and 6, 2009 to help improve understanding among the donor community of the key developmental role of IP, to encourage their support for intellectual property-related development projects and improve access by developing countries, particularly least developed countries (LDCs) and countries in Africa, to donor funding for such projects.
WIPO marked the tenth anniversary of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) on October 12, 2009 with a conference that brought together over 200 stakeholders from around the world. The conference sought to take stock of the UDRP experience and draw lessons with a view to informing other processes relating to the future of the Domain Name System (DNS) and in the broader context of intellectual property.
At a meeting on October 12, 2009 in Beirut, WIPO Director General Francis Gurry and President Michel Suleiman of Lebanon discussed the pivotal role of balanced national intellectual property (IP) regimes in promoting development, as well as WIPO’s capacity building activities in Lebanon.
WIPO member states, at their annual Assemblies from September 22 to October 1, 2009, signaled strong support for the Organization’s strategic realignment with the endorsement of a program and budget for the 2010/11 biennium that boosts WIPO’s development-related activities, emphasizes the need to advance the Organization’s normative work, and further upgrades its services to the private sector. The member states also agreed to renew the mandate of the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property, Traditional Knowledge, Folklore and Genetic Resources (IGC).
WIPO will host an open forum on October 13 and 14, 2009 at its Geneva headquarters to present projects relating to the development agenda to be discussed at the next session of the Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) from November 16 to 20, 2009.
Member states moved on September 24, 2009 to simplify the international design registration system by suspending the earliest of the three Acts that govern the Hague Agreement concerning the International Deposit of Industrial Designs. This decision will streamline the administration of the Treaty, which offers the possibility to protect designs in several countries by filing one single application (in one language with one set of fees in one currency - Swiss francs). The Hague system also simplifies the subsequent management of industrial design rights.
Thailand’s Deputy Minister of Commerce, Mr. Alondkorn Ponlaboot, on September 24, 2009 deposited his country’s instrument of accession to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) with WIPO Director General Francis Gurry. Thailand is the 142nd contracting state of this multilateral pact that facilitates the filing of patents in multiple countries. The treaty will enter into force for Thailand on December 24, 2009.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) signed on September 23an agreement with the International Federation of Musicians (FIM) and the International Federation of Actors (FIA) to support efforts to improve recognition of the significant contributions made by actors and musicians around the world.