Pre BIRPI 1883 – Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property The
Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property was adopted in 1883 and was one of the first
intellectual property treaties. It established a Union for the protection of industrial property. Additionally, it applies to a wide range of industrial property including
patents,
trademarks,
utility models,
industrial designs,
trade names,
service marks,
geographical indications as well as the "repression of
unfair competition". The Paris Convention was the first international agreement to protect the works of creators in other countries. Moving on, the convention was adopted in diplomatic conferences held in Paris in 1880 and 1883, it was then signed on 20 March 1883, on behalf of Brazil, France, Guatemala, Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Spain and Switzerland, Belgium, Italy and El Salvador. It consisted of the Convention proper, which contains 19 articles, and the
Protocole de clôture (Final Protocol), which is almost the same length as the Convention proper. The "International Bureau" established by the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property later became part of BIRPI and later WIPO.
1886 – Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works The
Berne Convention was adopted in 1886, it deals with copyright, the protection of works and rights of authors and rights holders. It provides creators including writers, poets, painters, musicians with ways to control how and by who their works are used and the terms of use. It also contains provisions on minimum protections and special provisions for developing countries. The Convention follows three basic principles; that works originating in one of the Contracting States must be given the same protection in each of the other Contracting States (principle of "national treatment"), that there is automatic protection and no formal process is required and that protection under the convention is independent of protection in the country of origin of the work (principle of "independence" of protection). The "International Bureau" was created to oversee the Berne Convention and later became part of BIRPI and later WIPO.
1891 – Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks In 1891 nine of the 14 States to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property created the first "special arrangements for the protection of industrial property". Along with the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement (1989) it created the Madrid System, the primary international system for facilitating the registration of
trademarks in multiple jurisdictions around the world.
BIRPI The Bureaus created to administer the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and the
Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property were under "the high supervision" (
haute surveillance) of the Government of the Swiss Confederation. In 1893 the Swiss government combined them with the same director and same staff as
United International Bureaux for the Protection of Intellectual Property,
Bureaux internationaux réunis pour la protection de la propriété intellectuelle (BIRPI). BIRPI was the predecessor of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) which superseded it 87 years later, in 1970.
Formation of WIPO WIPO was formally created by the
Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization, which entered into force on 26 April 1970. WIPO allowed members who were part of the Berne Convention, Paris Convention or a member of the United Nations system including the United Nations, any of its specialized agencies, the International Atomic Energy Agency or the International Court of Justice. That date is commemorated annually as
World Intellectual Property Day, which raises awareness of the importance of IP. Under Article 3 of this convention, WIPO seeks to "promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world". WIPO became a specialized agency of the UN in 1974. The Agreement between the United Nations and the World Intellectual Property Organization notes in Article 1 that WIPO is responsible: The Agreement marked a transition for WIPO from the mandate it inherited in 1967 from BIRPI, to promote the protection of intellectual property, to one that involved the more complex task of promoting technology transfer and economic development.
WIPO joining the United Nations In 1974 WIPO became a specialized agency of the United Nations through a bilateral agreement between WIPO and the UN approved by the General Assembly of WIPO on 27 September 1974, and by the
UN General Assembly on 17 December 1974. A protocol was signed by then Secretary-General of the United Nations,
Kurt Waldheim and then Director General of WIPO
Árpád Bogsch on 21 January 1975. The Agreement became effective on 17 December 1974. The relative importance of WIPO in global IP governance decreased after the United States incorporated intellectual property matters into the
Uruguay Round of the
GATT Negotiations in the 1980s.
WIPO Development agenda In October 2004, WIPO agreed to adopt a proposal offered by
Argentina and
Brazil, the "Proposal for the Establishment of a Development Agenda for WIPO"—from the
Geneva Declaration on the Future of the World Intellectual Property Organization. This proposal was well supported by developing countries. The agreed "WIPO Development Agenda" (composed of over 45 recommendations) was the culmination of a long process of transformation for the organization from one that had historically been primarily aimed at protecting the interests of rightholders, to one that has increasingly incorporated the interests of other stakeholders in the international intellectual property system as well as integrating into the broader corpus of international law on human rights, environment and economic cooperation. A number of civil society bodies have been working on a draft
Access to Knowledge (A2K) treaty which they would like to see introduced. In 2009, WIPO started drafting
future treaties on intellectual property and genetic resources, traditional knowledge and folklore in relation with
indigenous peoples and local communities. In December 2011, WIPO published its first World Intellectual Property Report on the Changing Face of Innovation, the first such report of the new Office of the Chief Economist. WIPO is also a co-publisher of the Global Innovation Index.
Recent events In 2016, WIPO initiated the High-Level Conference on Intellectual Property for
BRI Countries. China again rejected Wikimedia's bid, for the same reason, in 2021, 2023, 2024, and 2025. WIPO, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the WTO launched on 11 April 2022 their new Trilateral
COVID-19 Technical Assistance Platform. This new tool aims to help members and WTO accession candidates address their capacity building needs to respond to the
COVID-19 pandemic. The Platform provides members and accession candidates with a single contact form which they can use to reach out to the trilateral organizations. == Global services ==