World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

WIPO is the global forum for intellectual property services, policy, information and cooperation. It is a self-funding agency of the United Nations, with 189 member states. 

• The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is one of the 17 specialized agencies of the United Nations. 
• It is headquartered in Geneva.
• WIPO was created in 1967 "to encourage creative activity, to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world".
• Its mission is to lead the development of a balanced and effective international intellectual property (IP) system that enables innovation and creativity for the benefit of all.
• Its mandate, governing bodies and procedures are set out in the WIPO Convention, which established WIPO in 1967.
• The predecessor to WIPO was the United International Bureaux for the Protection of Intellectual Property (Bureaux Internationaux Réunis pour la Protection de la Propriété Intellectuelle, with the French acronym for "BIRPI"), which had been established in 1893 to administer the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.
• WIPO was formally created by the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization, which entered into force on April 26, 1970.