Property

Despite an uneven global economic recovery, international patent requests continued to surge in 2013, extending the run of strong annual increases in intellectual property (IP) filings to a fourth consecutive year, a new United Nations study reported today.

The United States and China drove international patent filings to a record level last year with applications for the first time surpassing the 200,000 mark, the United Nations intellectual property agency today reported, with record highs also reached for trademark and design applications.

The United Nations agency tasked with protecting ownership of intellectual property has welcomed the accession of an African group representing 16 countries to a key global treaty on industrial designs.

The United Nations agency tasked with protecting ownership of intellectual property announced today that an Australian national with extensive experience in the field has been nominated to become its next Director General.

A major accounting firm auditing the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in the wake of media allegations of corruption has stated that it “cannot conclude that certain employees of WIPO and third parties concerned might have committed any fraud or dishonest acts,” the agency said today.

The United Nations agency that protects intellectual property wound up its annual General Assembly today, having made a range of decisions from giving the poorest countries a deep discount on fees for trademark registration to laying the groundwork for a treaty tackling signal piracy in broadcasting.

The United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) today launched a two-week online forum designed to provide opportunities for all to engage and shape the emerging debate on the value of intellectual property protection in today’s information-driven society.

Two draft provisions – one on protecting traditional cultural expression and folklore, the other for protecting traditional knowledge – are ready for consideration at a meeting of a United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) committee early next month, according to a senior WIPO official.

Saying it has made "a major shift in priorities and direction" since its last meeting two years ago, a committee on development in the United Nations agency on intellectual property rights says developing countries must devise policies and strategies that turn their traditional knowledge, healing arts and culture into national assets.

With disputes over rights to inventions, discoveries and traditional knowledge sometimes leading to expensive lawsuits, the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) prepares to accept new students next week for its online courses.