The New WIPO Logo

WIPO is revamping its corporate image and, at the heart of it, creating a new logo, which will be unveiled on April 26, 2010.

The new WIPO logo is a powerful symbol of WIPO’s revitalization and strategic repositioning in line with rapid changes in the field of intellectual property (IP). The design is contemporary, memorable, and distinctive. It projects dynamism and innovation.

The new logo is based on a graphic representation of the WIPO headquarters building, an iconic structure familiar to WIPO Member States and stakeholders. The color blue links the Organization with the United Nations. The seven curved lines represent the seven elements of IP, as set out in the WIPO Convention:

• literary, artistic and scientific works,
• performances of performing artists, phonograms, and broadcasts,
• inventions in all fields of human endeavor,
• scientific discoveries,
• industrial designs,
• trademarks, service marks, and commercial names and designations,
• protection against unfair competition, and all other rights resulting from intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific, literary or artistic fields.

The spaces between the blue lines signify transparency and openness. The gathering sweep of the curves is inclusive and embracing – WIPO is an open forum, welcoming all stakeholders and points of view. The dynamic, upward pitch of the curves represents ideas, movement, and the progress which comes from using innovation and creativity as a means of improving the world. All of this rests on a strong foundation, the name and acronym of the Organization.

WIPO is undergoing a major strategic repositioning, moving into new areas in order to keep pace with the rapid technological, cultural and social changes affecting the world. It is an organization that looks to the future, and its new brand reflects that direction. The new logo is progressive and forward-looking, while linked to WIPO’s history and tradition at the center of international IP policy. Its clean, modern lines reflect the Organization’s central corporate values, notably trust, reliability, efficiency.

April 26, 2010, marks the 10th World Intellectual Property Day, as well as the 40th anniversary of the entry into force of the WIPO Convention that established the Organization – an ideal date to launch the new logo.

History of the WIPO logo

The origin of the WIPO logo dates to 1962 when a design representing WIPO’s predecessor organization, the Unions Internationales Propriété Intellectuelle (UIPI), appeared on some of its publications. That image, similar to the WIPO logo, contained the acronym UIPI at the center. In 1963, that acronym was replaced by the acronym of the Bureaux internationaux réunis pour la protection de la propriété intellectuelle (BIRPI). Then, in 1964, the Director of BIRPI officially communicated the BIRPI logo, name and abbreviation to the Member States of the Paris Union, for protection under Article 6ter of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.

In July 1970, the year the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization entered into force, the WIPO logo was communicated to the Member States of the Paris Union for protection under Article 6ter of the Paris Convention. Since then, it has appeared on the organization’s documents, publications, buildings and other related materials.

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