The purposes of WIPO are twofold: (1) to promote the protection of
intellectual property throughout the world through cooperation among
states and, where appropriate, in collaboration with any other
international organization; and (2) to ensure administrative cooperation
among the unions.
Intellectual property comprises two main branches:
industrial property,
chiefly in inventions, trademarks, and industrial designs; and
copyright,
chiefly in literary, musical, artistic, photographic, and
cinematographic works.
The WIPO Convention lists rights in intellectual property relating to
literary, artistic, and scientific works; performances of artists;
phonograms; broadcasts; inventions in all fields of human endeavor;
scientific discoveries; industrial designs; trademarks; service marks;
and commercial names and designations. The convention also offers
protection against unfair competition and covers all other rights
resulting from intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific,
literary, or artistic fields.
As of 1999, WIPO administered the following 22 unions or treaties (in
addition to the convention establishing WIPO), listed in the
chronological order of their creation:
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Industrial property (15):
the Paris Union (1883), for the protection of industrial property;
the Madrid Agreement (1891), for the repression of false or deceptive
indications of source on goods; the Madrid Union (1891), for the
international registration of marks; the Hague Union (1925), for the
international deposit of industrial designs; the Nice Union (1957),
for the international classification of goods and services for the
purpose of registration of marks; the Lisbon Union (1958), for the
protection of appellations of origin and their international
registration; the Locarno Union (1968), establishing an international
classification for industrial designs; the International Patent
Cooperation (IPC) Union (1970), for the establishment of worldwide
uniformity of patent classification; the Strasbourg Patent
Classification Treaty (PCT) Union (1971), for cooperation in the
filing, searching, and examination of international applications for
the protection of inventions where such protection is sought in
several countries; the Vienna Union (1973), establishing an
international classification of the figurative elements of marks; the
Budapest Union (1977), for the international recognition of the
deposit of microorganisms for the purpose of patent procedure; the
Nairobi Treaty (1981), on the protection of the Olympic symbol; the
Washington (DC) Treaty (1989) on intellectual property in respect of
integrated circuits; the Geneva Trademark Law Treaty (1994); and the
Agreement on the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
(TRIPS Agreement; 1995/96) between WIPO and the World Trade
Organization.
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Copyright and neighboring rights (7):
the Bern Union (1886), for the protection of literary and artistic
works; the Rome Convention (1961), for the protection of performers,
producers of phonograms, and broadcasting organizations, jointly
administered with the ILO and UNESCO; the Geneva Convention (1971),
for the protection of producers of phonograms against unauthorized
duplication of their phonograms; the Brussels Convention (1974),
relating to the distribution of program-carrying signals transmitted
by satellite; the WIPO Copyright Treaty (1996); the WIPO Performances
and Phonograms Treaty (1996); and the Patent Law Treaty (2000), which
applies to national and regional applications for patents for
invention.
Three additional treaties are to be administered by WIPO when they come
into effect: the Vienna Agreement, on the protection of typefaces and
their international deposit; the Geneva Treaty, on the international
recording of scientific discoveries; and the Madrid Multilateral
Convention, on the question of double taxation of copyright royalties.