World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) :
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations. It is dedicated to developing a balanced and accessible international intellectual property (IP) system, which rewards creativity, stimulates innovation and contributes to economic development while safeguarding the public interest.
WIPO was established by the WIPO Convention in 1967 with a mandate from its Member States to promote the protection of IP throughout the world through co-operation among states and in collaboration with other international organizations. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland.
The roots of the World Intellectual Property Organization go back to the year 1883, when Johannes Brahms was composing his third Symphony, Robert Louis Stevenson was writing Treasure Island, and John and Emily Roebling were completing construction of New York’s Brooklyn Bridge. The need for international protection of intellectual property became evident when foreign exhibitors refused to attend the International Exhibition of Inventions in Vienna in 1873 because they were afraid their ideas would be stolen and exploited commercially in other countries. The year 1883 marked the origin of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, the first major international treaty designed to help the people of one country obtain protection in other countries for their intellectual creations in the form of industrial property rights, known as inventions (patents); trademarks; industrial designs. The Paris Convention entered into force in 1884 with 14 member States, which set up an International Bureau to carry out administrative tasks, such as organizing meetings of the member States.
In the year 1886, copyright also entered the international arena with the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works to help nationals of its member States obtain international protection of their right to control, and receive payment for, the use of their creative works such as novels, short stories, poems, plays; songs, operas, musicals, sonatas; and drawings, paintings, sculptures, architectural works. Like the Paris Convention, the Berne Convention set up an International Bureau to carry out administrative tasks. In 1893, these two small bureaux united to form an international organization called the United International Bureau (BIRPI) for the Protection of Intellectual Property. The BIRPI indeed was the predecessor of the World Intellectual Property Organization.
With the growing importance of intellectual property, the structure and form of the Organization also changed. In 1960 BIRPI moved from Berne to Geneva to be closer to the United Nations and other international organizations in that city. A decade later, following the entry into force of the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization, BIRPI became WIPO and in the year 1974, WIPO became a specialized agency of the United Nations system of organizations, with a mandate to administer intellectual property matters recognized by the member States of the UN.
Even the well-drafted treaty is powerless without member States to bring its provisions to life, so WIPO actively encourages States to sign its treaties and to enforce them. Widespread accession and consistent enforcement inspire confidence that intellectual property rights will be respected around the world, encourage investment, and contribute to economic development and social well-being. WIPO also initiated a new policy to adapt to rapid changes in the field of industrial property, by using new options to speed up the development of internationally harmonized principles and rules. The adoption of international recommendations on the protection of well-known marks in 1999, on trademark licenses in 2000 and on the protection of marks on the Internet in 2001, complements the traditional and more lengthy treaty-based approach to international legal standard setting.