The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) - Purposes



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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.

User Contributions:

1
Ozella M.House
I believe I will make a significant contribution.Agapé
2
comfort
hi can this be referred as the objective of the wipo in general

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