FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – 1 October 2012. Geneva. Representatives from the International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI), including Chairman and President Bruce Lehman, Vice-Chairman Jorge Amigo, and Executive Director and General Counsel Andrew Jaynes traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, to represent the Institute at the Forty-First Session of the World Intellectual Property Institute (WIPO) General Assembly.
Jorge Amigo presented the Institute’s general statement to the Assembly. Mr. Amigo highlighted the effectiveness of intellectual property rights-related technical assistance and capacity-building programs and called upon the international community to devote additional resources. He argued that recent Institute projects demonstrated the benefits of intellectual property rights for inventors and creators in developing countries and noted that international financial institutions, such as the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, and Asian Development Bank, were well-positioned to assist developing countries in developing their intellectual property infrastructures.
The Institute will host a reception on the Innovation Opportunities project at the Centre International de Conférences Genève on October 2, 2012, from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m, for representatives from the WIPO Member State delegations and the Secretariat. The project, a joint project between the Institute, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL), aims at modernizing technology transfer offices at Philippine research institutions. Under the project, the Institute reviewed articles published by selected Philippine research institutions to assess their patentability. The Institute found that 27 percent of the articles contained potentially patentable materials and developed a technology transfer guide to assist Philippine researchers in capturing and commercializing their inventions. The Institute, in cooperation with USPTO and IPOPHL, will send a team to the Philippines to meet with government and institutional representatives and advise them on how best to implement the guide’s recommendations.
The Institute is committed to raising awareness of the potential uses of intellectual property as vehicles for economic development. The Institute is an accredited WIPO non-governmental organization observer and plans to attend at least two more WIPO assembly meetings over the next year.
Image © 2012 Andrew Jaynes