World Intellectual Property Organization – Looking Back

The World Intellectual Property Organization, or simply WIPO, is among United Nations’ seventeen specialized agencies. It became one of UN’s specialized agencies in 1974, although its roots can be tracked as early as 1883. The World Intellectual Property Organization’s mission is “To promote the protection of intellectual property (IP) throughout the world through cooperation among states.”

At present, the WIPO has 185 members, administers 24 international treaties, and is located in Geneva, Switzerland. The 184 members of the United Nations plus the Holy See make up the 185 members of the WIPO. Non-members include the Cook Islands, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Timor-Leste, Palau, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, and the states with limited recognition. Francis Gurry, who took the office seat on October 21, 2008, is currently the WIPO’s Director-General.

As implied earlier, the roots of the World Intellectual Property Organization can be tracked down during the later parts of the 19th century. In 1883 during the Paris Convention, representatives from fourteen countries discussed about the protection of inventions, industrial designs, and trademarks. This need for intellectual property protection became evident when some foreign exhibitors decided not to go to the International Exhibition of Inventions in Vienna in 1873 because they were afraid that their ideas would be copied and used commercially in other countries.

The concept of copyright was not known until it was discussed at the Berne Convention some years later. The main goal of the Berne Convention was to provide protection to those creations in the fields of art and literature, such as novels, poems, songs, musicals, paintings, drawings, and sculptures, to name a few. These two conventions gave birth to BIRPI, a small organization that was initially headquartered in Berne, Switzerland. BIRPI moved to Geneva in 1960, reorganized, and changed its name to Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Today, the World Intellectual Property Organization continues to fulfill its mission by harmonizing national intellectual property legislation and procedures, provide legal and technical assistance to its members, and marshal information technology to store, access, and use intellectual property information.