UN System Documentation

Copyright: WIPO. Photo by Emmanuel Berrod.

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

• Established as the United International Bureaux for the Protection of Intellectual Property (French acronym BIRPI) in 1893; renamed World Intellectual Property Organization in 1970; became a Specialized Agency of the United Nations in 1974.
• Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization (1967) 
  • Entered into force in 1970
• Relationship Agreement with UN (1974)
  • A/RES/3346 (XXIX) of 17 Dec. 1974
  • 956 UNTS 405
• Governing Bodies
  • WIPO General Assembly
  • Coordination Committee
• Legal texts
  • WIPO administered treaties
  • WIPO Lex includes treaties, laws, regulations related to IP
• Flagship publications
  • World Intellectual Property Report
  • Global Innovation Index
• Intellectual Property Statistics
• Library
• Directors General
  • 2020-: Daren Tang (Singapore)
  • 2008-2020: Francis Gurry (Australia)
  • 1997-2008: Kamil E. Idris (Sudan)
  • 1973-1997: Arpad Bogsch (United States of America) (Press release BIO/1204-SA/228 [1973])
  • 1963-1973: Georg Bodenhausen  (Netherlands) 
  • 1953-1963: Jacques Secrétan  (Switzerland) 
  • 1938-1953: Benigne Mentha  (Switzerland) 
  • 1926-1938: Fritz Ostertag  (Switzerland) 
  • 1922-1926: Ernest Rothlisberger (Switzerland) 
  • 1912-1921: Robert Comtesse (Switzerland)  
  • 1888-1912: Henri Morel  (Switzerland)