World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is one of the specialized agencies of the United Nations. WIPO in French is Organisation Mondiale de la Propriété Intellectuelle or OMPI. In 1967, WIPO was created with the stated purpose “to encourage creative activity, to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world”.
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) currently has 184 member states, administers 23 international treaties. The headquartered of WIPO is in Geneva, Switzerland. Almost all UN members are members of the WIPO. The predecessor to WIPO was the Bureaux Internationaux Réunis pour la Protection de la Propriété Intellectuelle (BIRPI) in French acronym for United International Bureau for the Protection of Intellectual Property (UIBPIP). In 1893, the United International Bureau for the Protection of Intellectual Property (UIBPIP) was set up to administer the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is formally created by the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization. On July 14, 1967 was signed at Stockholm and made as an amended on September 26, 1979. In the Article 3 of this Convention, WIPO seeks to “promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world.” In 1974, WIPO became a specialized agency of the UN.
WIPO has it own significant financial resources independent of the contributions from its Member States. 90% in 2006 of its income of around CHF500m is expected to be generated from the collection of fees by the International Bureau (IB) under the intellectual property application and registration systems which it
During the 1960s and 1970s, the developing nations were able to block expansions to intellectual property treaties, such as universal pharmaceutical patents which might have occurred through WIPO. In the 1980s, United States led this and other developed countries “forum shifting” intellectual property standard-setting out of WIPO and into the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, later it evolved into the World Trade Organization. On October 2004, WIPO agreed to adopt a proposal offered by Argentina and Brazil, the “Proposal for the Establishment of a Development Agenda for WIPO” - from the Geneva Declaration on the Future of the World Intellectual Property Organization. Because of this proposal was well supported by developing countries, and by a large contingent of civil society.