A Citizen’s Guide to WIPO (CIEL) (October 2007)

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If you have picked up this guide, it is likely that you or your organization are working, or are thinking of working, on intellectual property issues and are trying to understand the role that you can play in such discussions at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The objective of the Citizen’s Guide to WIPO is exactly that: to provide citizens and civil society organizations with the practical information required to promote and enhance their effective participation in WIPO discussions and activities. The Guide does not aim to address or explain the links between intellectual property and sustainable development, which have been extensively analyzed in a number of other reports and publications, many of which are listed in Annex A. Section II is meant to provide a quick overview of some of the issues and how they relate to WIPO. Nor is it a guide to WIPO’s services on patents, trademarks or domain name disputes. Rather, CIEL’s Citizen’s Guide to WIPO describes WIPO’s role in the development, implementation, and enforcement of intellectual property rules, and seeks to enable civil society to effectively insert public interest concerns into WIPO’s programs and activities.

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