Archive for the 'WIPO' Category

Press Release from Flaherty Law Group in Geneva:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, 21 SEPTEMBER 2014

UN Intellectual Property Agency WIPO Fires Staff Union Head Following Exposure of Dubious Management Practices

On 19 September 2014, the World Intellectual Property Agency (WIPO) fired Mr Moncef Kateb, president of the WIPO Staff Association, the accredited trade union of the UN specialized agency’s staff, in retaliation for his defense of staff and continued opposition to alleged misconduct by the WIPO Director General and his administration. Continue reading ‘UN Intellectual Property Agency WIPO Fires Staff Union Head Following Exposure of Dubious Management Practices’

Click here for original article in 18 November 2013 Tribune de Geneve

WIPO’s Director General is in the hot seat. Its budget, which foresaw the opening of an office in Moscow, has been refused.

Alain Jourdan

18 November, 2013

Francis Gurry, the Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), is in deep water. Last September, the Member States refused to vote on the organization’s budget.

In office since 2008, the Australian is paying for his rapprochement with the Russian Federation.  He is being accused in particular of having directly negotiated with Vladimir Putin and Dmitri Medvedev the opening of a WIPO regional office in Moscow without previously disclosing its development strategy to the Member States. At least, this is what is being maintained by the Member States. Upon discovering that the budget, which was presented to them a month ago, included lines of credit for future offices in Russia and even China, they rebelled by refusing to endorse the document submitted to them. Continue reading ‘“Vladimir Putin Interest in Patents Casts a Chill” – WIPO scandal in Tribune de Geneve’