The Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Dr. Kamil Idris, welcomed the accession by the European Community (EC) to the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs, which offers businesses in all participating countries a simple, affordable and efficient way of obtaining and maintaining their industrial designs.
The World Intellectual Property Organization has launched another workbook in its series of publications for school children entitled “Learn from the Past, Create the Future”. The latest workbook, “The Arts and Copyright”, offers teachers and students an engaging and informative account of the principles of copyright law and uses a wealth of colorful examples to demonstrate how copyright and related rights work in practice to protect and encourage creativity.
The meetings of the Assemblies of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which bring together WIPO’s 184 member states, opened on September 24, 2007 with the election of Ambassador Martin I. Uhomoibhi, Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations in Geneva as Chairman of the WIPO General Assembly. The meeting of WIPO Assemblies, which run from September 24 to October 3, 2007, will take stock of progress in the Organization’s work and discuss future policy directions.
“IP PANORAMA”, an advanced e-learning tool on intellectual property (IP) for business, is now publicly available from the website of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) at https://www.wipo.int/sme/en/multimedia/ and from the website of the IP Academy (http://www.ipacademy.net/ipeng/) which is operated by the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) and the Korea Invention Promotion Association (KIPA). IP PANORAMA was developed jointly by WIPO, KIPO, and KIPA under a project entitled, ‘The Joint Development of E-learning Content’ from 2004 to 2007.
An exhibition showcasing various facets of creativity in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) will open at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on September 24, 2007, coinciding with the opening day of the annual session of the WIPO Assemblies. The exhibition, "HK Creativity – Intellectual Property in Hong Kong, China," has been organized jointly by WIPO and the Government of the People’s Republic of China, in cooperation with the Government of the Hong Kong SAR.
The role of intellectual property (IP) in developing and sustaining competitive commercial advantage was the focus of the third executive business program offered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Worldwide Academy, in Geneva, from September 17 to 19, 2007. The three-day course, entitled “Strategic Intellectual Property Management” brought together 40 senior executives from 32 businesses, research and development (R&D) and academic organizations in 20 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.
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.