post Wednesday July 10, 2013
In a response to requests from its members, the UN World Intellectual Property office has announced that they will expand the number of regional offices that they offer. The proposal that WIPO has released would result in the creation of five new WIPO offices around the globe. WIPO currently has four external offices and one “liaison office.”
The announcement of the planned expansion of WIPO offices came in a white paper that was released during a five day meeting of the Program and Budget Committee (PBC). The PBC meetings are conducted by the WIPO secretariat and are a critical part of setting the budget and drafting the programs for the upcoming year that involves WIPO.
The newly minted offices are planned to be built in China, Russia, the United States and two yet to be determined African countries. It is clear that WIPO is taking a long term perspective with the announcement to expand its operations to China and Africa. Both China and Africa are growing in the amount of intellectual property that is created but there are still lagging standards for the protection, maintenance, enhancement and development of IP. The pending decision of which African countries will host the new offices is currently under internal discussions in the African Group. Algeria has already announced its willingness to house one of the offices in an effort to bolster their reputation and abilities for protecting IP.
An additional piece of prospective information that is gleaned from the white paper is the likely expansion of offices into Latin America, India and the Caribbean. These regions are also hotbeds for potential intellectual property development but lack protective systems and incentives for companies and organizations to develop their IP and locate it in the developing areas mentioned above. Additionally, it was made known that the Brazilian government has donated its own funds in an effort to boost activities in the Rio De Janeiro office.
Source: IP Watch
Image source: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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