Seven Names Said To Be Chosen For Top WIPO Posts

Word is out among Geneva diplomats that seven officials have been informally proposed to be the next cabinet of World Intellectual Property Organization Director General Francis Gurry.

Gurry reportedly has preliminarily chosen officials from Barbados (representing the Group of Latin American and Caribbean countries), China (its own regional group), Germany (Group B developed countries), Japan (Group B), Nigeria (African Group), Sri Lanka (Asian Group), and the United States (Group B).

There are four deputy director general and three assistant director general posts opening at WIPO this year, following Gurry taking office last October.

The expected nominees from each region above were recently reported by Intellectual Property Watch (IPW, WIPO, 5 May 2009), but have not yet been confirmed.

Sri Lanka’s candidate was not previously reported. He is Ambi Sundaram, director of the Department of Operational Support and Services at the World Health Organization. The others were said to include: Ambassador Trevor Clarke (Barbados), Wang Binying (China), Johannes Wichard (Germany), Yoshiyuki Takagi (Japan), Geoffrey Onyeama (Nigeria), and James Pooley (United States).

Wang Binying, Takagi and Onyeama currently work at WIPO.

There do not appear to be any officials chosen from Eastern or Central Europe. An argument likely will be made that Germany, which acts as part of the European Union at WIPO, will represent more eastern parts of Europe even though they constitute their own regional groups at WIPO. Arab states also did not have a representative.

Gurry had to choose from among some 20 names suggested by member states for the slots. Once they are finalised, his recommendations will head to the WIPO Coordination Committee, the 83-member WIPO executive body, which will consider them at their next meeting in June. Their recommendations will then go before the full membership at the General Assemblies in September. [Correction: the recommendations become final with Coordination Committee approval, according to WIPO sources.]