The Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Dr. Kamil Idris, met on September 20, 2007 with the Ambassadors and senior officials of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries represented in Geneva to review cooperation between the two organizations and to share views on ways to enhance cooperation in the field of intellectual property. The meeting was co-chaired by Dr. Idris and Ambassador Swashpawan Singh, Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations in Geneva, who is currently chairing the SAARC Group in Geneva.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) have reviewed joint cooperation activities over the past year and explored further possibilities in enhancing the capacity of member nations to better exploit the intellectual property (IP) system for economic, social and cultural development. This came at the XIIth meeting of the WIPO – ASEAN Cooperation Program in the field of Intellectual Property, held on September 19, 2007. The Director General, Dr. Kamil Idris, led the WIPO delegation and Ambassador Karen Tan, Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Permanent Mission of the Republic of Singapore, Geneva, led the ASEAN delegation, in her capacity as current Chair of the ASEAN Geneva Committee (AGC).
Talks between the Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Dr. Kamil Idris, and a delegation of senior Yemeni officials led by the Minister of Industry and Commerce of the Republic of Yemen, Dr Yahia Al Mutawakil, on September 12, 2007, focused on the strategic importance of intellectual property in today’s knowledge economy and explored ways to further strengthen cooperation between Yemen and WIPO.
The fifth annual WIPO Forum on Intellectual Property (IP) and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) for IP Offices and other relevant institutions in the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), meeting at the headquarters of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on September 13 and 14, 2007, urged WIPO to continue and expand its awareness raising and capacity building on IP for entrepreneurs and micro-enterprises. The Forum also requested WIPO to enlarge its focus to include business aspects of IP for students following courses in a range of disciplines, including, IP law, business, engineering, and technology management.
The Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Massimo D'Alema, signed an agreement in Rome on September 10, 2007, which strengthens Italy’s commitment to consolidate and reinforce its contribution to the activities of WIPO. The agreement formalizes Italy’s long-standing support of WIPO’s activities relating to economic development, and makes Italy one of the largest contributors of extra budgetary resources to WIPO.
The second in a series of public symposia on the life sciences and intellectual property will be held on Wednesday, September 19, 2007, at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and will address current issues in intellectual property and public health, an area that has sparked international debate and attention in recent years.
Questions such as how authors, composers and artists receive payment for use of their work in the digital economy and new opportunities for managing creators’ rights electronically will be the focus of discussions at a conference organized by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) from October 17 to 19, 2007, at the Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America. Key issues such as the impact of new services and business models – file-sharing, pod casting, streaming and Internet video services – future technological trends, licensing techniques, fee structures and distribution and measures to combat illegal downloading, will all be addressed by participants at the Conference on Collective Management of Copyright and Related Rights in North America, which is open to the public.
Geneva-based Permanent Representatives members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) attended a retreat organized by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on September 5, 2007 for an in-depth review of topical issues on the international intellectual property agenda. The meeting provided a forum for representatives of the OIC group to exchange views on matters of particular interest to their economic development.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on September 3, 2007, launched the seventh session of the Master of Laws (LLM) in Intellectual Property, a joint post-graduate program in intellectual property (IP) offered by the WIPO Worldwide Academy, the University of Turin and the International Labour Organisation, International Training Center (ILO-ITC), at the ILO-ITC in Turin, Italy. Thirty three students from around the world are participating in the 2007/2008 program.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is organizing a series of symposia in the coming months, at its Geneva headquarters, to clarify the intellectual property (IP) dimension in the life sciences. They are addressed to a wide range of stakeholders, including international policymakers, government agencies, legislators, delegates, private sector and civil society actors.