The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) (French: Organisation mondiale de la propriété intellectuelle or OMPI) is one of the specialized agencies of the United Nations. WIPO was created in 1967 with the stated purpose of encouraging creative activity and promoting the protection of intellectual property throughout the world.

WIPO currently has 183 member states,  administers 23 international treaties, and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The current Director-General of WIPO is Kamil Idris. Vatican City and almost all UN members are members of the WIPO. Not participating are the states Timor-Leste, Palau, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru and Tuvalu and the entities of Palestinian Authority, Taiwan and the Sahrawi Republic (Western Sahara).

History

The predecessor to WIPO was the BIRPI (Bureaux Internationaux Réunis pour la Protection de la Propriété Intellectuelle, French acronym for United International Bureau for the Protection of Intellectual Property), which had been set up in 1893 to administer the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.

WIPO was formally created by the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization (Signed at Stockholm on July 14, 1967 and as amended on September 28, 1979). 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, as above-mentioned.


from : en.wikipedia.org