Tax-News.Com Archive

Sponsored by: PEARSE TRUST
Independent advice on corporate and trust structures

ARCHIVE ROOT | TODAY'S NEWS | LOWTAX

WIPO Member States Adopt 2008/09 Program and Budget
by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels
02 April 2008

A one-day meeting of an extraordinary session of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Assemblies on Monday ended with agreement to adopt the Organization’s program and budget for 2008/09, as well as on a 5% decrease in fees paid for international patent applications.

The proposed level of expenditure for the 2008/09 biennium is SFR626.3mn. The program and budget 2008/09 was adopted with no prejudice to any adjustments that may be required during the biennium.

Chairman of the General Assembly, Ambassador Martin I. Uhomoibhi, who is also the Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations in Geneva, announced this week that the agreement was the result “of active consultations and negotiations aimed at resolving all pending issues” since the last WIPO Assemblies session in September-October 2007.

Uhomoibhi added that:

“The outcome achieved was the collective agreement that this Extraordinary Session be convoked principally to adopt the budget. The fact that we are meeting here today, 31 March 2008, is a result of the agreement reached during these negotiations.”

The agreement included a decision to reduce the international filing fee under the PCT by 5% (this means that the international filing fee will fall from SFR1,400 to SFR1,330) and to increase the reduction from 75% to 90% for countries whose per capita national income is below USD3,000, as well as to Antigua and Barbuda, Bahrain, Barbados, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Oman, Seychelles, Singapore, Trinidad and Tobago and the United Arab Emirates.

This fee reduction will be effective from July 1st, 2008.

Speaking after the meeting, the Director General of WIPO, Dr Kamil Idris, welcomed the decision on the program and budget for the 2008/09 biennium, observing that:

“The adoption of the budget today is a sign of goodwill by all member states…It reflects mutual understanding that the Organization should move on.”

.

 

IMPORTANT NOTICE: TAX-NEWS.COM has taken reasonable care in sourcing and presenting the information contained on this site, but accepts no responsibility for any financial or other loss or damage that may result from its use. In particular, users of the site are advised to take appropriate professional advice before committing themselves to involvement in offshore jurisdictions, offshore trusts or offshore investments. All materials on this site copyright TAX-NEWS.COM 1999 to 2007. Contact us for further information.