Committee Meetings

Member States Endorse Senior Appointments

The WIPO Coordination Committee, meeting on June 15 and 16, endorsed proposals by Director General Francis Gurry for a new senior management team, consisting of four Deputy Directors General (DDGs) and three Assistant Directors General (ADGs). The appointments of the DDGs and ADGs are effective from December 1, 2009, to November 30, 2014, following the expiry of the mandates of the current incumbents. The Coordination Committee expressed consensus support for the new team, which comprises the following appointments:

Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama (Nigeria), DDG for Development;

Mr. James Pooley (United States of America), DDG for Patents;

Ms. Binying Wang (China), DDG for Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical Indications;

Mr. Johannes Christian Wichard (Germany), DDG for Global Issues;

Mr. Trevor C. Clarke (Barbados), ADG for Copyright and Related Rights;

Mr. Ramanathan Ambi Sundaram (Sri Lanka), ADG for Administration and Management;

Mr. Yoshiyuki Takagi (Japan), ADG for Global IP Infrastructure.

The Director General and the Coordination Committee also paid warm tribute to the outgoing DDGs and ADGs.

SCCR to Expedite Work in Favor of Reading Impaired

WIPO's top copyright negotiating forum has agreed "to continue without delay" its work on facilitating the access of the blind, visually impaired (VIP) and other reading-disabled persons to copyright-protected works. This subject - as well as broader questions of limitations and exceptions to copyright law as they relate to libraries, archives and educational activities - is at the heart of current work of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR).

Discussions at the SCCR meeting from May 25 to 29 centered on a series of practical measures to facilitate access to copyright-protected materials by reading-impaired persons, including a stakeholders' platform, a key aim of which is to develop solutions to make published works available in accessible formats in a reasonable time frame. All participants supported moving forward with this work.

A proposal was also submitted by Brazil, Ecuador and Paraguay regarding a draft treaty prepared by the World Blind Union (WBU). The SCCR decided to continue these discussions at...