The Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) presents his compliments to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and, as requested by the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations Office and Other International Organizations in Geneva in his letter dated December 26, 1991, and received on January 6, 1992, has the honor to communicate the text of the following note of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation:
"The Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation presents its compliments to the Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization and has the honour to inform him that the membership of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the World Intellectual Property Organization and all its bodies as well as participation in all the conventions, agreements and other international legal instruments signed in the framework of the World Intellectual Property Organization or under its auspices is continued by the Russian Federation (RF), and that in this connection the name "The Russian Federation" in place of the name "The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" is to be used in the World Intellectual Property Organization.
The Russian Federation remains responsible in full for all rights and obligations of the USSR in the World Intellectual Property Organization, including the financial obligations.
This note certifies the credentials to represent the Russian Federation in the bodies of the World Intellectual Property Organization for all those currently possessing the credentials to represent the USSR in the World Intellectual Property Organization.
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation avails itself of this opportunity to present to the Director General of the World Intellectual Property organization the assurances of its highest consideration."
The Director General believes that the reference (made in the above quoted communication) to "all the conventions, agreements and other international legal instruments signed in the framework of the World Intellectual Property organization or under its auspices" is to be understood as a reference to the following treaties:
- the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property
- the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks
- the Nice Agreement Concerning the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks
- the Locarno Agreement Establishing an International Classification for Industrial Designs
- the Patent Cooperation Treaty
- the Strasbourg Agreement Concerning the International Patent Classification
- the Trademark Registration Treaty
- the Convention Relating to the Distribution of Programme-Carrying Signals Transmitted by Satellite
- the Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure
- the Nairobi Treaty on the Protection of the Olympic Symbol
It is recalled that the Director General of WIPO is the depositary of each of the said treaties with the exception of the Convention Relating to the Distribution of Programme-Carrying Signals Transmitted by Satellite, the depositary of which is the Secretary-General of the United Nations, who issues notifications concerning the status of parties to that Convention.
January 20, 1992