Government ministers participating in the first-ever High Level Segment of the Assemblies of the member states of WIPO on September 22 and 23, 2009, endorsed WIPO’s progress toward its strategic goals, which they said marked a new era for the Organization and its ability to ensure that the intellectual property (IP) system helps meet an increasing number of global challenges. They emphasized that IP is now widely perceived as a key policy tool to promote public interest, innovation and technological progress.
On the sidelines of the ministerial segment of the WIPO’s Assemblies, Kenya’s Minister of Industrialization, Mr. Henry K. Kosgey, and the Director General of WIPO, Mr Francis Gurry, signed a cooperation agreement covering access to and dissemination of national patent documents. This is the latest in a series of agreements between WIPO and intellectual property offices of developing countries to enhance access to patent information. Similar agreements exist with ARIPO, Brazil, Cuba, Israel, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Republic of Korea, Singapore, South Africa, and Vietnam.
In his opening statement to the annual meetings of the member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Director General Francis Gurry called on member states to work together to ensure that the IP system serves as a stimulus for developing solutions to the global challenges confronting policy makers across the world.
A two-day international symposium concluded on September 18, 2009 with broad agreement on the need to pool efforts at the international level to address the problem of backlogs in patent applications.
A new WIPO report monitoring recent trends in intellectual property (IP) activity shows that demand for IP rights continued to increase prior to the onset of the global economic crisis, with 1.85 million patent (+3.7% increase over 2006), almost 3.3 million trademark (+1.6%) and approximately 0.62 million industrial design (+15.3%) applications filed worldwide in 2007. The report, World Intellectual Property Indicators 2009 , points to a slowdown in demand for IP rights in 2008 (based on preliminary figures ), when the global economy experienced a sharp decline. The report also documents an increased level of unprocessed (pending) patent applications, reaching 4.2 million applications in 2007.
For the first time, the annual meetings of WIPO member states will begin with a two-day high-level ministerial segment reflecting the importance of intellectual property (IP) in senior policy-making spheres. The high-level segment on September 22 and 23, 2009 will bring together over forty ministers who will address national IP priorities.
WIPO Director General Francis Gurry welcomed on Friday the adoption of the Global Framework for Climate Services to strengthen production, availability, delivery and application of science-based climate predictions, information and services and underscored the contribution that intellectual property can make in mitigating the climate change.
An international symposium in Geneva on September 17 and 18, 2009 will address the need to improve the interface between national intellectual property (IP) systems to overcome operational inefficiencies arising largely from growing demand for IP rights. The event will foster public-private dialogue and aims to strengthen ties between IP service providers (national IP authorities) and their clients (industry), to highlight the concerns of the user community and the need to re-engineer IP systems to reduce bottlenecks which are slowing the pace of innovation that is key to economic growth.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and Queensland University of Technology (QUT) have joined ranks to offer a Master of Intellectual Property Law program from February 2010. This program was launched by the WIPO Director General, Mr. Francis Gurry, Director General of IP Australia, Mr. Philip Noonan, and Executive Dean of QUT’s Faculty of Law, Professor Michael Lavarch, in Brisbane on August 5, 2009.
In a community ceremony, under the shade of an acacia tree, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) formally handed over digital recording equipment to Chief Kisio and other elders of the Maasai community, at Il Ngwesi, Laikipia, Kenya to assist the Maasai people in preserving and documenting their rich cultural heritage. Some 200 members of the community participated in the ceremony in late July.