Top government officials, business leaders and senior law enforcement authorities meeting in Cancún, Mexico urged national and international political and business leaders to step up actions against counterfeiting and piracy to help boost global economic recovery. The call for increased action came at the close of the Fifth Global Congress on Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy held in Cancún from 1-3 December.
Senior decision makers from governments, law enforcement, customs and the private sector are gathering in Cancun for the Fifth Global Congress on Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy to identify solutions to the worldwide trade in fake products which pose a threat to health and the global economy.
WIPO Director General Francis Gurry, speaking at the opening of the World Trade Organization (WTO) seventh ministerial conference in Geneva on November 30, 2009, underlined the importance of innovation in dealing with some of today’s most pressing global challenges – economic recovery and climate change. He further pledged the Organization’s commitment in assisting countries to develop national innovation strategies.
WIPO has launched an enhanced online patent information service that will improve public access to information on patents filed and granted around the world. WIPO’s PATENTSCOPE®, which currently hosts data on more than 1.6 million international patent applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), has been extended to include several collections of national and regional patent information.
WIPO Director General Francis Gurry wrapped up a five day official visit to New Delhi on November 13, 2009 in which he held a series of high level meetings, including with the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh - that addressed a range of issues of specific interest to India and areas of joint cooperation with WIPO.
WIPO Director General Francis Gurry, joined by India’s Secretary, Department of Industry and Commerce, Mr. Ajay Shankar, opened on November 13, 2009 an international conference by highlighting the importance of developing a balanced international legal framework for the effective protection of traditional knowledge (TK), genetic resources (GRs) and traditional cultural expressions (TCEs).
WIPO Director General Francis Gurry met representatives of India’s visually impaired (VIP) community at a conference on the “Right to Read of persons with print disabilities and copyright challenges” organized by the VIP community in cooperation with the Government of India in New Delhi on November 11, 2009, and reaffirmed WIPO’s commitment to supporting international attempts to improve access to copyright protected works by visually impaired persons (VIPs). “Let me assure you that this is a priority area for the World Intellectual Property Organization,” Mr. Gurry said.
The need for a balance in the intellectual property (IP) system between effective incentives for innovation and the diffusion of the benefits of innovation, as well as the interface between IP and public policy objectives, such as the environment and public health was emphasized by India’s Minister for Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma at the opening of the 5th International Forum on Creativity and Inventions - A Better Future for Humanity in the 21st Century, on November 11, 2009 in New Delhi. WIPO Director General Francis Gurry also underlined the need for balance and outlined the challenges and opportunities facing the IP community in a rapidly evolving economic and technological environment.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is hosting an international conference in Geneva on November 5 and 6, 2009 to help improve understanding among the donor community of the key developmental role of IP, to encourage their support for intellectual property-related development projects and improve access by developing countries, particularly least developed countries (LDCs) and countries in Africa, to donor funding for such projects.
WIPO marked the tenth anniversary of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) on October 12, 2009 with a conference that brought together over 200 stakeholders from around the world. The conference sought to take stock of the UDRP experience and draw lessons with a view to informing other processes relating to the future of the Domain Name System (DNS) and in the broader context of intellectual property.