For information only - not an official document

UNIS/OUS/025
12 May 2010

Re-issued as received

UNIDO to Work Close with World Intellectual Property Organization in Support of Sustainable Development

VIENNA, 12 May (UN Information Service) - The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) will further strengthen their cooperation to leverage their respective expertise in support of sustainable development.

The two Organizations plan to work closer on technology foresight and strategic use of patent information for development, innovation promotion and technology transfer, private sector development, and trade capacity building and trade-related intellectual property rights issues.

An agreement on this was approved in Vienna today by the UNIDO Industrial Development Board at its 37th session. It will be signed by UNIDO Director-General, Kandeh K. Yumkella, and WIPO Director-General, Francis Gurry.

"Creating awareness and practical capacity-building on intellectual property protection and use should be an integral part of any industrial development strategy," said Yumkella.

"UNIDO-WIPO cooperation will help developing countries face the challenges of a globalized economy."

Addressing the UNIDO Industrial Development Board, Francis Gurry said that the intellectual property system played a key role in facilitating technology transfer by incentivizing investment in innovation, providing a framework for trading intellectual assets, and by establishing market order through marks and brands.

He noted that the innovation landscape was "the subject of rapid and radical change" pointing to the intensification of investment in knowledge creation which had more than doubled in the past 15 years rising to some USD 1.1 trillion in 2009.

UNIDO and WIPO already have joint projects. In January, UNIDO and WIPO launched a trade capacity development programme in Pakistan. The programme is funded by the European Commission with EUR 9.5 million and will run for four and a half years.

UNIDO is developing the supply capacity in fisheries and horticulture, and supporting the development of compliance infrastructure and services. WIPO in turn is developing the intellectual property regime and institutional set-up. Joint activities for the fisheries and horticulture sectors will add value to export products through the recognition and promotion of specific local product attributes (branding).

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For more information, please contact:

Mikhail Evstafyev
UNIDO Press Secretary
Mobile: (+43-699) 1459-7329 or (+43-650) 391-5278
Email: m.evstafyev@unido.org