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What is Intellectual Property?
Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind – everything from works of art to inventions, computer programs to trademarks and other commercial signs. This booklet introduces the main types of IP and explains how the law protects them. It also introduces the work of WIPO, the global forum for IP services, policy, information and cooperation.
Publication year: 2020
Guide to WIPO Arbitration
Arbitration is increasingly being used to resolve disputes involving intellectual property, technology, entertainment and other commercial rights. This booklet provides a straightforward introduction to this dispute resolution procedure, based on the extensive experience of the WIPO Center. It describes the main features and advantages of arbitration and explains how arbitration under the WIPO Arbitration and Expedited Arbitration Rules works in practice, with case examples.
WIPO Program and Budget
for the 2022/23 biennium
The Program and Budget is a defining document for the Organization. It establishes the results that Member States wish to see achieved by the Organization over the coming biennium and authorizes the programs and resources necessary for the realization for those results.
Publication year: 2021
Protecting Your Mobile App
Intellectual Property Solutions
Mobile apps are multilayered products with different features, which may be protected by various intellectual property (IP) rights including but not limited to copyright, trademark and patent. This publication is designed as a guide for app developers and publishers to understand how to legally protect the intellectual property of their mobile app. It offers legal clarity and business-oriented guidelines on IP, to generate additional revenue from a mobile app for creators and rights holders, and provides practical advice and insights to inform strategic decisions. The publication reviews the mobile app value chain and offers a checklist of legal considerations when identifying the relevant IP rights, protection options and strategies.
Intermediary Liability and Trade in Follow-on Innovation
Economic Research Working Paper No. 66
Liability rules affect the incentives of intermediaries to disseminate and curate creative works, in particular when works build on the work of predecessors and they are potentially infringing copyright. In an application to the visual arts, we show that appropriation artists borrow images from different sources and incorporate them into new, derivative works of art. By doing so, they risk infringing copyright but also put commercial trade and availability of the work at litigation risk as liability can extend to intermediaries in markets (auction houses) or in public exhibitions (museums). Using a differences-in-differences model and unique data on the level of the individual art work, we empirically investigate the impact of the prominent 2013 Cariou v. Prince U.S. court decision on trade and availability in Appropriation Art.
WIPO Magazine, Issue 3/2021 (September)
The WIPO Magazine explores intellectual property, creativity and innovation in action across the world.
IP for the Good of Everyone
Report of the Director General to the 2021 WIPO Assemblies
This annual report reviews the activities of 2020 and looks firmly to the future and a new strategic direction for WIPO.
Global Innovation Index 2021, 14th Edition
Executive Summary
The Global Innovation Index 2021 takes the pulse of the most recent global innovation trends and ranks the innovation ecosystem performance of 132 economies, while highlighting innovation strengths and weaknesses and particular gaps in innovation metrics. In its new Global Innovation Tracker section, the report draws on a select set of indicators, including the effects on research and development expenditures or access to innovation finance, to provide a perspective on the impact of COVID-19 on global innovation performance.
WIPO Workforce 2021
June Edition
WIPO's workforce is the human capital of the Organization and its greatest asset. This brochure shows a detailed picture of staffing at WIPO in 2021.
WIPO and the Sustainable Development Goals
Innovation driving human progress
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide an ambitious roadmap for human progress. This brochure explains how WIPO's work supports the SDGs by enabling innovation for the economic, social and cultural development of all countries.