PRESS CONFERENCE ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

In a world where knowledge was a very important commercial asset, intellectual property was an inexhaustible resource, the Director of Global Communications and Public Policy for the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Geoffrey Yu, said today at a Headquarters press conference.

Mr. Yu said intellectual property -- the legal terminology applied to potentially important commercial information -- was a major factor in production as the world moved away from exploitation of traditional commodities and resources and into fields which exploited the creativity of the mind.

The international development of rules and practices governing the protection, use and promotion of intellectual property had a long history, he said. Those rules and practices were extremely relevant at the beginning of the new millennium. The WIPO dated back to 1883, when the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property was concluded. The first international treaty dealing with certain aspects of intellectual property, the Paris Convention, was still very relevant to business and technology protection. The second main pillar, the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, was concluded in 1886. Since then, many new treaties dealing with different aspects of intellectual property had been concluded -- the last two in 1996.

The WIPO Copyright Treaty was created in 1996 and had not yet come into force, he continued. It was created to take into account problems associated with the easy circulation of copyrighted works on the Internet. The United States Congress had recently passed legislation that was in conformity with the provisions of the Copyright Treaty. Hopefully, the United States would sign the Treaty, he added.

The creation and application of intellectual property rights in trade, industry and everyday life had brought a great deal of economic and commercial benefits, he said. They had also given a great deal of aesthetic pleasure to millions around the world, irrespective of language or cultural heritage. Dance, theatre, literature, photography, painting and cinematography provided revenue for their creators.

Intellectual property rights benefited transnational companies and big businesses, but they were also important for countries, he continued. Because creativity of the human mind was independent of economic and technological development, such rights were also relevant for developing countries. Throughout history, cultures and societies that were economically and technologically primitive, had been extremely productive in art and culture. Even in today's advanced technological world, simple societies -- in Latin

WIPO Press Conference - 2 - 23 October 1998

America, Africa and the South Pacific -- produced a rich heritage of unique cultural expressions which appealed to people in so-called more developed societies. Those expressions could bring in tremendous revenues when exploited commercially, and attention should focus on the kinds of rights people and individuals in less developed societies could acquire.

The WIPO, unlike other United Nations specialized agencies, generated sufficient revenue to fund 85 per cent of its annual expenditures, which were around $150 million a year, he said. Its revenue came primarily from international registration services provided to enterprises and individual inventors or researchers. The registration system allowed an inventor to file an international application or request for protection in specified countries -- thus saving time and money. The service, which had increased by 15 to 20 per cent over the last eight years, also covered international application of trademarks and industrial designs.

The WIPO's healthy financial position allowed it to provide services that benefited its 171 member States, he said. It had launched new initiatives, including an examination of intellectual property rights linked to the development of the Internet and the rise of electronic commerce, known as "e-commerce". That field was beginning to cause a lot of problems in trade and industry circles. The WIPO had been given a mandate to examine the protection of trademarks on the Internet; the relationship between trademarks and domain names on the Internet and the protection of copyrighted works available on the Internet. It was also examining the protection of folklore and cultural heritage, which had suddenly become commercially interesting in the marketing of music, designs and other visual works.

Another WIPO initiative was the development of an international intellectual property information global network, he continued. It would provide interested member States (developing countries had expressed particular interest) with the hardware, software, training and maintenance capacities to set up national information networks on intellectual property questions. Countries could exchange information, at little or no cost, on the kinds of technology protected in each country, on trade marks and copyright works. Such information was valuable when, for example, making a patent application. In order to justify protection for a patent, the inventor must describe the state of the art pertaining to the particular field; how the invention was new and different from existing technology; and how it could add to the current body of knowledge and benefit industry. The network would provide knowledge which could be the basis for further development and improvement.

He said it was important for countries to know about new technological developments in other countries, in competitor enterprises and in different industries, so the knowledge could be the basis for further development and improvement. The information provided by the WIPO network could also help an enterprise wanting to market a product with a new trademark by allowing them to check whether it was already protected in other countries.

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The WIPO had also been working closely with industry to ensure that any new rules reflected market practices and expectations and helped promote economic growth and the globalization of trade and industry, he said. It had poured money and expertise into developing countries to help them take advantage of their potential for creativity. The aim was to help them, once they had set up an appropriate intellectual property system, to create new wealth for their societies.

In response to a question, Mr. Yu said WIPO became a United Nations specialized agency in 1974.

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