About CLEA

The Collection of Laws for Electronic Access (CLEA) is an electronic database (available in English, French and Spanish) providing access to intellectual property legislation from various countries and regions as well as treaties on intellectual property.

The CLEA bibliographic data entries contain information about legislative texts received by WIPO from competent authorities of the countries concerned or via the World Trade Organization (WTO) within the context the TRIPS agreement. New texts are continuously being received by WIPO to be added to the collection.

Under Article 15(2) of the Paris Convention and Article 24(2) of the Berne Convention, member States must communicate to the International Bureau of WIPO all new laws and official texts concerning the protection of industrial property and copyright. Under the said Articles, the International Bureau is obligated to assemble and publish information concerning the protection of industrial property and copyright.

Certain authorities also have to notify their intellectual property legislation to the Council for Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) - under Article 63(2) of the TRIPS Agreement and subsequently WTO should communicate this legislation to WIPO under Article 2(4).

At present, CLEA is the only updated WIPO information resource providing information about IP Laws and Treaties. Similar WIPO resources and products, namely the "IPLEX CD-ROM" (IP Legislative Texts) and the "Intellectual Property Laws and Treaties Periodical" are no longer supported and updated. Information contained in these previous information resources is now included in CLEA.