WIPO Surveys Members On Its Services Provided To Traditional Knowledge Committee

By Caitlin McGivern for Intellectual Property Watch

The Internal Audit and Oversight Division (IAOD) of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is conducting an evaluation of the service provided by the WIPO secretariat in support of the committee on traditional knowledge and related issues.

The WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC) is meeting from 15-24 July.

All participants in the IGC, as well as the chair and vice-chairs, are invited to provide their views and suggestions as part of this evaluation. A survey is being conducted, and will be open until 31 July.

The survey can be accessed here. According to IAOD, it should not take more than 20 minutes to complete.

IAOD stated that the evaluation is being conducted to assess the quality, timeliness, appropriateness and relevance of services (administration and organisation) provided by the WIPO secretariat in support of the IGC. It looks at the role of the secretariat in support of the 23^rd, 24^th and 25^th IGC sessions (held over the past year), the focus of which were genetic resources, traditional knowledge, and folklore (or traditional cultural expressions), respectively.

According to IAOD, all information received during the evaluation process will be treated with confidentiality as to source and used only for the purpose of improving the support services offered by the WIPO secretariat.

For further questions, please contact the Internal Audit and Oversight Division at evaluation@wipo.int.

Caitlin McGivern is currently studying at the University of Law in London and will graduate with an LLM in 2014. She previously obtained a Bachelor’s of Arts in Philosophy and Theology from the University of Oxford. She is a summer intern at Intellectual Property Watch. She is of Swiss, Canadian and Irish nationalities.