Category WIPO

WIPO Committee Advances Decisions On Programme, Budget, Oversight

The powerful World Intellectual Property Organization Program and Budget Committee in its recent meeting worked through a tough agenda of core decisions about the UN organisation’s functioning and future. The committee reached decisions on key issues related to strengthened oversight, the 2014-2015 programme, and financial issues, but couldn’t break through on issues like new WIPO field offices, streamlining committee meetings, accounting for development expenditures, or funding indigenous representatives to participate in WIPO negotiations.

Old (former IPR-Thieving) Napster v New (IPR-Thieving) Napster.fm?

The World Intellectual Property Organization this week released the decision in an internet domain name dispute in which the current incarnation of the once-wildly successful Napster music-sharing website successfully forced a website called napster.fm to shut down over intellectual property rights violations. Is Napster still cool?

WIPO Members Work To Strengthen Oversight Of UN Agency

World Intellectual Property Organization member governments are hard at work this week trying to improve auditing and oversight of the UN agency, coming after a successful year financially but a year of questions about governance and transparency. Proposed changes include a number of measures on conflicts of interest and investigations even at the highest levels of the organization.

UN Inspectors Find Need For Transparency, Changes In Governance At WIPO

The United Nations Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) has issued a substantive analysis of management and administration in the UN World Intellectual Property Organization. And while the report highlights significant progress in a number of areas, it offers a list of ways WIPO can do better – including on transparency and sorting out staff concerns and strengthening member state oversight.

IP-Watch Spotlight: WIPO Lex, Database Of Global IP Systems

WIPO Lex is a publicly available online database under the World Intellectual Property Organization providing streamlined access to the intellectual property systems of almost 200 jurisdictions. The database now features over 12,000 legal texts, some 600 treaties and is operational in six languages: English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish. Intellectual Property Watch takes a look at this resource.

Abundance Of Latin American Candidates For Senior WIPO Post

It has been said among some member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization that the next deputy director general responsible for development should come from the Latin American and Caribbean region. If that is the case, a look at some senior officials in Geneva from the region shows a significant pool of available talent from which to draw.

Report: Switzerland Again World’s Most Innovative; North-South Innovation Divide Remains

Is Europe the most innovative region in the world? In a well-regarded report, Switzerland has again been deemed the world’s most innovative nation, followed by the United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands. But the annual Global Innovation Index also shows a persistent innovation divide between developed and developing countries, and this year focuses on the human factor in innovation.

360 Applicants Bid For Top WIPO Posts; Selection Process Underway

The World Intellectual Property Organization is currently engaged in an unprecedented process for the selection of the new top management team to serve under recently re-elected Director General Francis Gurry. The open call for applicants resulted in some 360 applications from around the world, including from the upper echelons of WIPO itself, according to sources.