Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) Acting Commissioner Kim Tae Man is attending the annual World Intellectual Property Organization General Assembly this week. In that context, he sat down with Intellectual Property Watch, and in a mutually prepared Q&A, he described some of KIPO’s policies and future plans, collaboration with WIPO, international partnerships, and regional efforts toward global harmonisation.
The yearly World Intellectual Property Organization General Assemblies opened today. WIPO Director General Francis Gurry in his opening report to the member states underlined the rising demand for intellectual property protection, which continues to offer a healthy financial situation for the fee-financed organisation, but called on delegates to look into the future and start discussing questions linked to the use of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence.
World Intellectual Property Organization members gather next week for their annual General Assemblies. Among the topics to be discussed is which countries will host new WIPO external offices in 2018-2019. Also on the agenda are the reports from various WIPO committees, with some raising the prospect of convening high-level final negotiations on international treaties next year. A number of side events and exhibitions are also scheduled, focusing on issues like health, women, and innovation.
The Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD), a forum of United States and European Union consumer organisations, yesterday released a resolution calling on policymakers “to break out of the current dysfunctional and harmful trade-off between innovation and access,” and to delink research and development (R&D) from monopoly pricing.
The latest escalation in US-Sino trade tensions following the announcement by President Donald Trump on 17 September that the US will slap 10 percent punitive tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods imports effective on 24 September and increase them to 25 percent on 1 January 2019, and China's counter-salvo announced on 18 September to impose tariffs of between 5 and 10 percent on $60 billion worth of US goods imports to kick in on 24 September may prove difficult to ease back from the brink.
There are often big issues at stake at the global center for international intellectual property policy in Geneva, but sometimes, the nearly 200 governments that direct the UN World Intellectual Property Organization have to ask themselves questions like, should the director general of WIPO get to fly around the world first-class? Turns out, the answers can vary, but for now, he can carry on.
Looking at movements in the global IP community over the summer and heading into fall, many old faces among the government delegations in Geneva left for new posts, while a new set of faces is taking up residence. Meanwhile, people are on the move at international organisations and NGOs, and law firms continued to see high turnover.
The UN World Intellectual Property Organization's 7 million Swiss franc sale early this year of a building providing revenue to the Madrid Union on trademarks is being looked at more carefully this week after being flagged by the WIPO external auditor. Meanwhile, WIPO members are considering a recommendation to raise fees on international trademark registration for the first time in 20 years.
The World Intellectual Property Organization Program and Budget Committee (PBC), a key member-state body at the UN agency, today opened a week of work on a range of issues. Opening the meeting, WIPO Director General Francis Gurry highlighted the positive financial status of the organisation but cautioned that external factors could make it risky to continue its heavy dependence on the popular Patent Cooperation Treaty.
The World Intellectual Property Organization Program and Budget Committee, one of the main governing bodies of the organisation, will meet next week to finalize a range of issues on the functioning and work of the UN agency for the year. If WIPO has an insolently good financial status for a United Nations organisation, auditors still made a number of recommendations including on the trademark system managed by WIPO, the rental of space to third parties, the recording of works of art in the building, and late travel authorisations.