The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a specialized agency of the United Nations for the protection of intellectual property, was established in accordance with the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization. On July 14, 1967, the 51 contracting parties of the “International Union for the Protection of Industrial Property” and the “International Union for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works” jointly signed the Treaty in Stockholm (which came into effect on April 26, 1970) to establish a worldwide intellectual property protection organization. On December 17, 1974, it became a specialized agency of the United Nations. Its purpose is to promote the protection of intellectual property rights throughout the world through international cooperation; to ensure administrative cooperation among various intellectual property unions. Intellectual property rights are mainly divided into industrial property rights (including invention patents, utility models, trademarks, industrial design rights, etc.) and copyrights (including rights to works such as literature, art, music, photography and film). The organizational structures include: General Assembly, Conference of Member States, Coordination Committee and International Bureau. Headquartered in Geneva, China joined in June 1980. The organization. As of April 2019, the World Intellectual Property Organization has 192 member states.
The predecessor of the World Intellectual Property Organization was the International Bureau for the Protection of Intellectual Property, which was formed by the merger of the International Union for the Protection of Industrial Property and the International Union for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, which were created based on the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property in 1883 and the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works in 1886. The membership of the World Intellectual Property Organization is: all member states of the International Union for the Protection of Industrial Property, the International Union for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, the Union for the Protection of New Crop Varieties, the Patent Cooperation Treaty, the Trademark Registration Treaty, the Strasbourg Agreement on the International Patent Classification and the Vienna Agreement on the Protection of Printed Typefaces and their International Deposit, member states of the United Nations, specialized agencies of the United Nations or international organizations. Member states of the International Atomic Energy Agency, parties to the Statute of the International Court of Justice, and countries invited by the World Intellectual Property Organization General Assembly to join its convention may join the World Intellectual Property Organization.
The functions of the World Intellectual Property Organization are: to encourage the signing of international agreements and coordinate national legislation to promote the protection of intellectual property rights worldwide, to provide relevant legal and technical assistance to developing countries; to collect and disseminate technical information; to handle international registrations and other cooperation operations between member states; to be commissioned by various international intellectual property alliances to manage the administrative affairs of the alliances or to enforce relevant treaties. The World Intellectual Property Organization has formulated a long-term development cooperation program related to industrial property rights to encourage the creation, invention and innovation of developing countries to enhance their technological capabilities.
At the same time, it also formulates The International Patent Certificate Center, established in Vienna in 1972, stores the main cataloging data of about 1 million patent documents each year in computers for retrieval by patent offices, industry, and research and pilot institutions. The Intellectual Property Organization helps the center to contact patent offices in various countries and to get in touch with people who use this information and the technical information contained in patent documents.
Organizational structure: General Assembly (the highest authority, held every two years), Conference of Member States (held at the same time as the General Assembly), Coordination Committee (the advisory and executive body of the General Assembly and the Conference of Member States), International Bureau (the secretariat of the organization and the various alliances). There is a Director-General, who is appointed by the General Assembly based on the nomination of the Coordination Committee for a term of six years. The headquarters is located in Geneva, Switzerland, and there is a liaison office in the United Nations Building in New York. China is a member of the Coordination Committee, the Budget Committee, the Building Infrastructure Committee, the Standing Committee on Industrial Property Development Cooperation, and the Standing Committee on Industrial Property Information. On July 10 and 30, 1992, China formally joined the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and the Universal Copyright Convention respectively.