The WIPO Convention - Life begins at 40!

• Pages: 2-3

APRIL 2010

22

THE WIPO

CONVENTION –

LIFE BEGINS AT 40!

so revised the Organization’s two key treaties –

the 1883 Paris Convention for the Protection of

Industrial Property (then with 77 members, now

173); and the 1886 Berne Convention for the

Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (then

with 58 members, now 164). It also modified five

special agreements established under the Paris

Convention, mainly dealing with the registration

and classification of marks, registration of indus-

trial designs, and the protection of appellations of

origin. The Convention was signed in English,

French, Russian and Spanish, ushering in a new

era of multilingualism within the Organization.

On a structural level, three governing bodies were

set up within WIPO: the Conference, the General

Assembly and the Coordination Committee. These

were to meet regularly, in contrast to the previous

arrangement under BIRPI whereby Member States

of the Paris and Berne Conventions (which BIRPI

had been set up to service) had made decisions

on an

ad hoc

basis for some 87 years – mainly in

diplomatic conferences of revision held, on aver-

age, every 20 years. Control of BIRPI’s activities

and finances had been essentially exercised by

Switzerland, the Bureaux’s host country, which al-

so appointed the staff, including the Director.

With the entry into force of the WIPO Convention,

this control passed to Member States and, to a

certain extent, the WIPO Director General elected

by those States.

Just a beginning

In the last 40 years, the 6 original treaties managed

by BIRPI have grown in number, in tandem with a

changing technological landscape, and now

count 24, including the WIPO Convention. The

Organization’s Member States currently stand at

184 and its working methods have changed be-

yond imagining with the arrival of wireless tech-

nology and the web. Intellectual property (IP) and

the innovation at its heart have taken on a new

global significance, increasingly recognized as a

means of wealth creation, of improved living stan-

It was an

abracadabra

moment… that took place

40 years ago, on April 26, 1970. Two small, French-

speaking, Swiss-led “bureaux,” rooted in a couple

of 19th century treaties, were transformed into a

single, multilingual, member-state-driven interna-

tional organization. That organization would soon

become a UN specialized agency and would

adopt a new treaty – the Patent Cooperation

Treaty (PCT) – that would not only bring it world

renown and financial stability, but revolutionize

the international patent system.

It was on that day, four decades ago, that BIRPI be-

came WIPO – or, to put it less succinctly, the

Bureaux

internationaux réunis pour la protection de la propriété

intellectuelle

became the World Intellectual Property

Organization.

The Convention Establishing the World Intellectul Property

Organization was hammered out in the halls of the Swedish

Parliament in Stockholm.

The “magic wand” responsible for this metamor-

phosis – the Convention Establishing the World

Intellectual Property Organization – had been

crafted during a five-week-long conference of

BIRPI member states in the halls of the Swedish

Parliament in Stockholm in 1967. The agreement

reached at that time, and distilled into the text of

the Convention, not only established WIPO but al-

iStockphoto.com