The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO)

1. Background

The Paris Convention (1883) and the Berne Convention (1886) each provided for an international bureau. In 1893 the two were united as the United International Bureaux for the Protection of Intellectual Property, known by its French acronym BIRPI, based at Berne and later at Geneva. The Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization was signed at Stockholm on 14 July 1967 and entered into force in 1970, when BIRPI was replaced by WIPO. In 1974 WIPO became a specialised agency of the United Nations. Its headquarters are in Geneva. India became a member in 1975.

2. Objectives: Article 3

• to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world through cooperation among States and, where appropriate, with other international organisations; and
• to ensure administrative cooperation among the Unions (the Paris Union, the Berne Union and the special unions under them).

3. Functions: Article 4

• promoting measures to facilitate efficient protection of IP and to harmonise national legislation;
• performing the administrative tasks of the Paris Union, the Berne Union and the special unions;
• agreeing to assume the administration of other international agreements promoting IP;
• encouraging the conclusion of new international agreements;
• offering cooperation to States requesting legal and technical assistance;
• assembling and disseminating information, carrying out studies and publishing results;
• maintaining services for international protection of IP, and providing for registration and publication of registrations; and
• taking all other appropriate action.

4. Organs

• General Assembly (Article 6) — of member States that are also members of any of the Unions. It is the supreme organ: it appoints the Director General on the nomination of the Coordination Committee, reviews and approves reports and activities, adopts the biennial budget of expenses common to the Unions, and adopts financial regulations.
• Conference (Article 7) — of all member States, whether or not members of a Union. It discusses matters of general interest in IP, adopts the budget of the Conference, establishes the programme of legal-technical assistance, and adopts amendments to the Convention.
• Coordination Committee (Article 8) — made up of members of the Executive Committees of the Paris and Berne Unions. It advises the other organs and the Director General, prepares the agenda and draft programme of the General Assembly, and nominates the candidate for Director General.
• International Bureau (Article 9) — the secretariat, headed by the Director General, who is appointed for a fixed term of not less than six years, is the chief executive and represents the Organization.

WIPO is financed largely by fees paid by users of its global filing systems (PCT, Madrid, Hague), not mainly by member contributions.

5. Treaties administered

• IP protection treaties: Paris, Berne, Rome (performers), WIPO Copyright Treaty and WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (1996, the “internet treaties”), Marrakesh Treaty (2013, access for visually impaired persons), Trademark Law Treaty and Singapore Treaty, Patent Law Treaty.
• Global protection system treaties: PCT (patents), Madrid (marks), Hague (industrial designs), Lisbon (appellations of origin and geographical indications), Budapest (deposit of micro-organisms).
• Classification treaties: Nice (goods and services), Locarno (designs), Strasbourg (patents), Vienna (figurative elements of marks).
• Recent treaties: in 2024 WIPO members adopted the Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge, requiring patent applicants to disclose the origin of genetic resources and traditional knowledge used, and the Riyadh Design Law Treaty.

6. Services and activities

• Running the PCT, Madrid and Hague filing systems.
• The WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center, which decides most domain name disputes under the UDRP and offers IP mediation and arbitration.
• Development cooperation and the Development Agenda (2007), legislative advice and capacity building for developing countries.
• Global databases (PATENTSCOPE, the Global Brand Database), the WIPO Academy, and the Global Innovation Index.
• Standing committees on patents, trade marks and copyright, which prepare new treaties.

7. WIPO and the WTO

The TRIPS Agreement (1994) incorporates the substantive provisions of the Paris and Berne Conventions and adds enforcement through WTO dispute settlement, which WIPO lacks. The two bodies signed a cooperation agreement in 1995 under which WIPO gives developing countries technical assistance in implementing TRIPS and makes its collection of national laws available.

8. India and WIPO

India joined WIPO in 1975 and is party to the Paris Convention, Berne Convention, PCT, Madrid Protocol, Budapest Treaty, the Marrakesh Treaty (India was the first country to ratify it, in 2014), and the WIPO Copyright Treaty and Performances and Phonograms Treaty (acceded 2018). The Indian Patent Office acts as an International Searching and Preliminary Examining Authority under the PCT.

How this is examined

August 2024: “Explain organs and functions of World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).” January 2026: a note on the “Role of WIPO”; February 2025: a note on WIPO. For the essay, sections 1 to 4, with section 6 to show the role in practice. For the note, background in two lines, the objectives, a list of functions and services, and the four organs.