The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is one of the 17 specialized agencies of the United Nations. WIPO was created in 1967 "to encourage creative activity, to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world."
WIPO currently has 185 member states, administers 24 international treaties, and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The current Director-General of WIPO is Francis Gurry, who took office on October 1, 2008. 184 of the UN Members as well as the Holy See are Members of WIPO. Non-members are the states of Cook Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tuvalu, and the states with limited recognition. Palestine has observer status.
Read more about World Intellectual Property Organization: History, Information Network, Directors-General
Famous quotes containing the words world, intellectual, property and/or organization:
“It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“Life must be filled up, and the man who is not capable of intellectual pleasures must content himself with such as his senses can afford.”
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“In the Greek cities, it was reckoned profane, that any person should pretend a property in a work of art, which belonged to all who could behold it.”
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“In any great organization it is far, far safer to be wrong with the majority than to be right alone.”
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