World Intellectual Property Organisation
Background
The World Intellectual Property Organisation ("WIPO") is a specialised agency of the United Nations. The Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organisation (1967) states its objective as the promotion of the protection of intellectual property throughout the world through co-operation among States and, where appropriate, in collaboration with any other international organisations.
WIPO administers more than twenty international treaties in the fields of copyright (and related rights), patents, industrial designs and trade marks. It also facilitates the conclusion of new international treaties in this area and assists States with the modernisation of national legislation.
WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC)
The IGC is mandated to discuss intellectual property issues that arise in three areas:
- Access to genetic resources and benefit-sharing;
- Protection of traditional knowledge, whether or not associated with genetic resources; and
- The protection of expressions of "folklore" (as a subset of traditional knowledge, also referred to as "traditional cultural expressions").
See Factsheet 5 for further information.
WIPO provides a forum for international policy debate and development of legal mechanisms and practical tools concerning the protection of traditional knowledge (TK) and traditional cultural expressions (folklore) against misappropriation and misuse, and the intellectual property (IP) aspects of access to and benefit-sharing in genetic resources.
The WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (the IGC), was created in 2000 and met for the first time in 2001, to discuss the protection of TK and traditional cultural expressions against misappropriation and misuse. WIPO's work in these areas involves close cooperation with other international organizations and NGOs, as well as the organisation of a wide range of capacity-building activities. Capacity-building resources include practical IP guidelines and information technology tools for managing IP issues when digitizing intangible cultural heritage, being developed within the Creative Heritage Project.
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