WIPO: New External Auditor, Officers; Vietnam To Chair Assembly; New Treaty Accessions

At the start of the World Intellectual Property Organization General Assembly this week, officers to chair the assemblies of WIPO-managed unions were elected. Following a change of rule last year, a chair was also elected to preside over the General Assembly for the next two years. In addition, a new external auditor from the United Kingdom was approved, and Nigeria and Indonesia acceded to WIPO treaties.

The WIPO General Assemblies are taking place from 2-11 October.

Last year, the General Assembly adopted a decision [pdf] following a proposal by Latvia, which was chairing the assembly, to change the electoral cycle of the WIPO General Assembly chair and vice-chairs so that the term of office of newly elected chair and vice-chairs begins at the end of the WIPO General Assembly. The chair and vice-chairs are elected for a period of two years.

The list of elected officers, which is a result of consultations between WIPO member states prior to the General Assembly, is as follows:

WIPO General Assembly chair: Viet Nam Ambassador Chi Dung Duong; vice-chairs: Moldova Amb. Tudor Ulianovschi; and Senegal Amb. Coly Seck

WIPO Conference chair: Manuel Guerra Zamarro, director general of the Instituto Nacional del Derecho de Autor of Mexico

WIPO Coordination Committee chair: Daniiar Mukashev, permanent representative of Kyrgyzstan; vice chairs: Yukio Ono, director, Multilateral Policy Office at the Japan Patent Office; and Faizal Chery Sidharta.

Paris Union Assembly chair: Bemanya Twebaze, registrar general at the Uganda Registration Services Bureau, Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs of Uganda; vice-chairs: Shen Changyu, commissioner at the State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO); and Maximiliano Santa Cruz, director national of the Instituto Nacional de Propiedad Industrial of Chile.

Madrid Union Assembly chair: Nikoloz Gogilidze, chairman of the National Intellectual Property Center of Georgia; vice-chairs: Cui Shoudong, executive deputy director general of the China Trademark Office, State Administration for Industry and Commerce; and Sumit Seth, first secretary for economic affairs at the Indian mission.

Nice Union Assembly chair: Miguel Ángel Margáin González, director general of the Instituto Nacional del Derecho de Autor; vice-chairs: Lin Junqiang, deputy director general of the China Trademark Office; and Robert Ullrich, head of department of the Austrian Patent Office.

Lisbon Union Assembly chair: João Pina De Morais, first secretary at the Portugal mission in Geneva; vice-chair: Reza Dehghani, first secretary at the Iranian mission

Patent Cooperation Treaty Union Assembly chair: Sandris Laganovskis, director of the Latvia Patent Office; vice-chair HE Zhimin, deputy commissioner of SIPO

Budapest Union Assembly chair: Maximiliano Santa Cruz, director national of the Instituto Nacional de Propiedad industrial of Chile; vice-chairs: Wu Kai, director general, International Cooperation Department, SIPO; and Patrick Andersson, senior advisor for International Affairs at the Swedish Patent and Registration Office

Assembly of the WIPO Copyright Treaty chair: Manuel Guerra Zamarro of Mexico; vice-chairs Zoltán Nemessanyi, deputy secretary of state for International Judicial Coooperation of Hungary; and Kamran Imanov, chairman of the Copyright Agency of Azerbaijan

Assembly of the Singapore Treaty chair: Vanco Kargov, director general, Ministry of Finance, Customs Administration of Macedonia

Assembly of the Marrakesh Treaty chair: Mohamed Essalmi of Tunisia; vice-chairs: Mark Schaan, director general, Marketplace Framework Policy Branch Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, and Abdelsalam Al Ali, commercial attaché, United Arab Emirates mission to the World Trade Organization.

New External Auditor

The General Assembly also approved the nomination [pdf] of Sir Amyas Morse, the Comptroller and Auditor General of the United Kingdom as the new WIPO External Auditor for a period of six years, starting on 1 January 2018.

Accessions

Indonesia acceded to the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks on 2 October, becoming the 100th member of the Madrid Union, the protocol will enter into force for Indonesia on 2 January 2018.

Nigeria joined four WIPO treaties on 4 October: the WIPO Copyright Treaty; the WIPO Performances and Phonographs Treaty; the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled; and the Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances. The Beijing Treaty will enter into force three months after 30 ratifications or accessions (currently 19). The other treaties will enter into force for Nigeria on 4 January 2018.