World Intellectual Property Organisation or

WIPO
The World Intellectual Property Organisation or WIPO is a UN specialized agency created in
1967 to promote intellectual property (IP) protection and encourage creative activity all over
the world. WIPO is basically a global forum for IP policy, services, information and
cooperation. 

What is WIPO?

The World Intellectual Property Organisation or WIPO is a global body for the promotion
and protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). 

 It acts as a global forum for IP Services.

 WIPO is a self-funded agency of the United Nations.
 With 192 members, WIPO’s motto is to encourage creative activity, to promote the
protection of intellectual property throughout the world.
 It is at present headed by Francis Gurry, who is its Director-General. WIPO is
headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
 WIPO has its origins in the United International Bureaux for the Protection of
Intellectual Property (BIRPI), which was established in 1893.

WIPO’s Mandate

‘WIPO is dedicated to developing a balanced and accessible international Intellectual

Property (IP) system, which rewards creativity, stimulates innovation and contributes to
economic development while safeguarding the public interest.’

WIPO's two main objectives are

(i) to promote the protection of intellectual property worldwide; and

(ii) to ensure administrative cooperation among the intellectual property Unions established
by the treaties that WIPO administers.

Functions of WIPO 

The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) was established with the intent to
perform the following functions:

 To assist the development of campaigns that improve IP Protection all over the globe
and keep the national legislations in harmony.
 Signing international agreements related to Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
protection.
 To implement administrative functions discussed by the Berne and Paris Unions.
 To render legal and technical assistance in the field of IP.
 To conduct research and publish its results as well as to collect and circulate
information.
  To ensure the work of services that facilitate the International Intellectual Property
Protection.
 To implement other appropriate and necessary actions.

WIPO and India

India joined the WIPO in 1975.

India is a part of the following WIPO Treaties:

 IPO Convention (1975)

 Paris Convention (1998)
 Berne Convention (1928)
 Patent Cooperation Treaty (1998)
 Phonograms Convention (1975)
 Nairobi Treaty (1983)
 Nice Agreement (2019)
 Locarno Agreement (2019)
 Vienna Agreement (2019)

ROME CONVENTION, 1961

INTERNATIONAL CONVENTIONFOR THE PROTECTION OF

PERFORMERS,PRODUCERS OF PHONOGRAMS ANDBROADCASTING
ORGANISATIONS

Done at Rome on October 26, 1961

Total 34 Articles

The Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and
Broadcasting Organisations was accepted by members of BIRPI, the predecessor to the
modern World Intellectual Property Organization, on 26 October 1961. The agreement
extended copyright protection for the first time from the author of a work to the creators and
owners of particular, physical manifestations of intellectual property, such as audiocassettes
or videocassettes.

Convention responded to the new circumstance of ideas variously represented in easily

reproduced units by covering performers and producers of recordings under copyright:

1. Performers (actors, singers, musicians, dancers and other persons who perform
literary or artistic works) are protected against certain acts they have not consented to.
Such acts are: the broadcasting and the communication to the public of their live
performance; the fixation of their live performance; the reproduction of such a
fixation if the original fixation was made without their consent or if the reproduction
is made for purposes different from those for which they gave their consent.
2. Producers of phonograms enjoy the right to authorise or prohibit the direct or
indirect reproduction of their phonograms. Phonograms are defined in the Rome
Convention as meaning any exclusively aural fixation of sounds of a performance or
 of other sounds. When a phonogram published for commercial purposes gives rise to
secondary uses (such as broadcasting or communication to the public in any form), a
single equitable remuneration must be paid by the user to the performers, or to the
producers of phonograms, or to both; contracting States are free, however, not to
apply this rule or to limit its application.
3. Broadcasting organisations enjoy the right to authorise or prohibit certain acts,
namely: the rebroadcasting of their broadcasts; the fixation of their broadcasts; the
reproduction of such fixations; the communication to the public of their television
broadcasts if such communication is made in places accessible to the public against
payment of an entrance fee.

The Rome Convention allows the following exceptions in national laws to the above-
mentioned rights:

 private use
 use of short excerpts in connection with the reporting of current events
 ephemeral fixation by a broadcasting organisation by means of its own facilities and
for its own broadcasts
 use solely for the purpose of teaching or scientific research
 in any other cases—except for compulsory licenses that would be incompatible with
the Berne Convention—where the national law provides exceptions to copyright in
literary and artistic works.

As to duration, protection must last at least until the end of a 20-year period computed from
the end of the year in which -

(a) the fixation was made, for phonograms and for performances incorporated therein;

(b) the performance took place, for performances not incorporated in phonograms;

(c) the broadcast took place. However, national laws increasingly provide for a 50-year term
of protection, at least for phonograms and performances.

Berne Convention
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as
the Berne Convention, is an international agreement governing copyright, which was first
accepted in Berne, Switzerland, in 1886.

The Berne Convention is an international copyright treaty signed by 143 countries including
India which signed the convention on April 1 , 1928.
This treaty provides a list of rights enjoyed by these authors-such as the right to authorize or
prohibit reproduction, public communication, or adaptation of these works.
It also allows treaty countries to provide certain exceptions to protection. Some countries also
protect producers of sound recordings as "authors" with Berne-type protections.
The goals of the Berne Convention were to provide the basis for mutual recognition of
copyright between sovereign states in foreign works and promote development of
International norms with regard to copyright protection.

Protection-

Protection must include "every production in the literary, scientific and artistic domain,
whatever the mode or form of its expression" (Article 2(1) of the Convention).

Subject to certain allowed reservations, limitations or exceptions, the following are among
the rights that must be recognized as exclusive rights of authorization:

 the right to translate,

 the right to make adaptations and arrangements of the work,
 the right to perform in public dramatic, dramatic-musical and musical works,
 the right to recite literary works in public,
 the right to communicate to the public the performance of such works,
 the right to broadcast (with the possibility that a Contracting State may provide for a
mere right to equitable remuneration instead of a right of authorization),
 the right to make reproductions in any manner or form (with the possibility that a
Contracting State may permit, in certain special cases, reproduction without
authorization, provided that the reproduction does not conflict with the normal
exploitation of the work and does not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests
of the author; and the possibility that a Contracting State may provide, in the case of
sound recordings of musical works, for a right to equitable remuneration),
 the right to use the work as a basis for an audio-visual work, and the right to
reproduce, distribute, perform in public or communicate to the public that audio-
visual work.

WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT)

The World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty (WIPO Copyright Treaty or
WCT) is an international treaty on copyright law adopted by the member states of the World
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 1996. It provides additional protections for
copyright to respond to advances in information technology since the formation of previous
copyright treaties before it.[3] The WCT and WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty, are
together termed WIPO "internet treaties".[4]
The WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) is a special agreement under the Berne Convention that
deals with the protection of works and the rights of their authors in the digital environment.

As to the rights granted to authors, apart from the rights recognized by the Berne
Convention, the Treaty also grants: (i) the right of distribution; (ii) the right of rental; and (iii)
a broader right of communication to the public.

 The right of distribution is the right to authorize the making available to the public
of the original and copies of a work through sale or other transfer of ownership.
 The right of rental is the right to authorize commercial rental to the public of the
original and copies of three kinds of works: (i) computer programs (except where the
 computer program itself is not the essential object of the rental); (ii) cinematographic
works (but only in cases where commercial rental has led to widespread copying of
such works, materially impairing the exclusive right of reproduction); and (iii) works
embodied in phonograms as determined in the national law of Contracting Parties
(except for countries which, since April 15, 1994, have had a system in force for
equitable remuneration of such rental).
 The right of communication to the public is the right to authorize any
communication to the public, by wire or wireless means, including "the making
available to the public of works in a way that the members of the public may access
the work from a place and at a time individually chosen by them". The quoted
expression covers, in particular, on-demand, interactive communication through the
Internet.

As to limitations and exceptions, Article 10 of the WCT incorporates the so-called "three
step" test to determine limitations and exceptions, as provided for in Article 9(2) of the Berne
Convention, extending its application to all rights. The Agreed Statement accompanying the
WCT provides that such limitations and exceptions, as established in national law in
compliance with the Berne Convention, may be extended to the digital environment.
Contracting States may devise new exceptions and limitations appropriate to the digital
environment. The extension of existing or the creation of new limitations and exceptions is
allowed if the conditions of the "three-step" test are met.

As to duration, the term of protection must be at least 50 years for any kind of work.

The enjoyment and exercise of the rights provided for in the Treaty cannot be subject to any
formality.

The Treaty obliges Contracting Parties to provide legal remedies against the circumvention of
technological measures (e.g., encryption) used by authors in connection with the exercise of
their rights, and against the removal or altering of information, such as certain data that
identify works or their authors, necessary for the management (e.g., licensing, collecting and
distribution of royalties) of their rights ("rights management information").

The Treaty obliges each Contracting Party to adopt, in accordance with its legal system, the
measures necessary to ensure the application of the Treaty. In particular, each Contracting
Party must ensure that enforcement procedures are available under its law so as to permit
effective action against any act of infringement of rights covered by the Treaty. Such action
must include expeditious remedies to prevent infringement as well as remedies that constitute
a deterrent to further infringement.

The Treaty establishes an Assembly of the Contracting Parties whose main task is to address
matters concerning the maintenance and development of the Treaty. It entrusts to the
Secretariat of WIPO the administrative tasks concerning the Treaty.

The Treaty was concluded in 1996 and entered into force in 2002.

The Treaty is open to States members of WIPO and to the European Community. The
Assembly constituted by the Treaty may decide to admit other intergovernmental
organizations to become party to the Treaty. Instruments of ratification or accession must be
deposited with the Director General of WIPO.