At the seat of the World Intellectual Property Office – WIPO, in Geneva, the 65th serial of sessions of the General Assembly of WIPO member states was opened yesterday and it will take place in the period July 9-17, 2024. During the first day of the session, after the adoption of the agenda, the speech was delivered by Mr. Daren Tang, Director General of the WIPO.
In his introductory speech, the Director General of the WIPO stated that the greatest number of registered participants has been recorded so far at the annual sessions, a total of 1400, including 20 ministers from member states. Mr. Tang has emphasized that this session is held only two months after the holding of the Diplomatic conference for the adoption of the WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge in the spirit of togetherness and mutual understanding.
He invited the member states to continue working in the same spirit on the critical tasks with the aim to strengthen the work and influence of the WIPO all over the world. Those tasks are the harmonization of practice, passing new legal norms and standards, new policies and projects in order to make intellectual property one of the important steps on the road of every innovator and creator to the marketing of their innovations and creations, but also to make it a catalyst for the economic growth and development of every member state.
Address of Mr. Daren Tang can be seen here.
In the following point on the agenda, the presentation of reports followed, first by the ministers of member states, then the representatives of the group of countries and it was followed by the addressing of countries in their national capacities. On the first day, on behalf of the delegation of the Republic of Serbia, presentation was delivered by Mr. Vladimir Marić, Director of the Intellectual Property Office. In his address, Mr.Marić emphasized that the fast development of technologies imposes need for the improvement of the IP system and strengthening of professional capacities for the enforcement of IPRs.
Serbia observes the WIPO as the key international institution for the building of the just system of intellectual property protection. The director of the IPO RS emphasized that several activities of cooperation of the IPO and the WIPO were most important, such as those conducted between the two serials of sessions, like the promotion of the Serbian edition of the WIPO publication: ”Entrepreneurship Ideas: Guideline for Intellectual Property for Start-Ups” with the support and participation of the WIPO in one of the four science and technology parks in Serbia, which is of particular importance primarily for start-ups that realize their innovations mostly in the domain of information and communication technologies. On that occasion, he stated that the export of Serbia in the ICT increased for 35% in 2023, reaching the amount of 3.4 billion euros.
The statement of the Office can be seen here.
Apart from the director of the Office, the delegation of the Republic of Serbia, at the 65th serial of sessions of the WIPO General Assembly, constituted of Mr. Milan Milanović, Ambassador at the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Serbia with the UN and Other International Organizations in Geneva, Ms. Daniela Zlatić Šutić, IPO Asst. Director and Ms. Jovana Đurović Vojnović, Third Secretary of the Permanent Mission with the UN.
