The WIPO Center continues to extend its collaborations with Intellectual Property and Copyright Offices to promote ADR options for resolving IP disputes. To this end, in addition to the new agreement with the USPTO, WIPO recently concluded Memoranda of Understanding with the Patent Office of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC-SG), the Registry of Intellectual Property of Guatemala (RPI), and the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ). The WIPO Center has also started collaborating with the National Directorate of Copyright of Argentina (DNDA).
 
Additionally, the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) recently joined the WIPO Mediation Pledge for IP and technology disputes, a WIPO initiative to promote mediation as an alternative to court litigation in order to reduce the impact of disputes that arise in innovation and creative processes.
 

Through the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Shanghai Service (Shanghai Service), established in October 2019 in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center is the first foreign arbitral institution approved by the Ministry of Justice of the People’s Republic of China to be engaged in mediation and arbitration of foreign-related IP cases in China. In July 2020, with the approval of the Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China, the Shanghai High People’s Court commenced referring foreign-related IP disputes to the Shanghai Service. In October 2021, WIPO and this Court further concluded a Memorandum of Understanding that expanded the number of courts able to refer IP cases to the Shanghai Service for mediation from two to six. So far, the Shanghai Service has received 50 cases from courts, with a settlement rate of some 40 percent.