[Ip-health] Reuters: U.S. urges U.N. patent agency chief to consider quitting

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

U.S. urges U.N. patent agency chief to consider quitting

Mon Oct 1, 2007 6:31pm BST

By Robert Evans

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States on Monday said the head of the
United Nations' intellectual property and patent protection agency WIPO
should either publicly answer allegations of dishonest conduct against
him or resign.

The call was addressed to WIPO Director-General Kamil Idris by U.S.
ambassador to the U.N.'s European headquarters in Geneva Warren
Tichenor in a speech to the 184-nation agency's annual General
Assembly.

"To the Director-General we say: clearly and convincingly answer the
allegations against you in open forum in this General Assembly before
member states, or heed those calling for new leadership at WIPO,"
Tichenor declared.

"The vital work ahead for this important organization demands of its
top leadership a director-general that is above reproach and not
surrounded with serious questions, allegations and evidence which
seriously question his character, integrity and judgment," the U.S.
envoy said.

Idris was not in the hall to hear the remarks, but officials of WIPO --
the World Intellectual Property organization -- said afterwards the
agency stood by earlier statements that the accusations against him
were groundless.

Tichenor's comments were the bluntest yet in public in the controversy
surrounding Idris, a Sudanese lawyer, who was elected to head the
agency in 1997 and was reappointed to a second six-year term in 2003.

WIPO, which in recent years has played an increasingly key role in
administering global patent and trademark treaties as well as in
protecting Internet addresses, or domain names, from abuse, is widely
regarded as an economic success.

Unlike most other U.N. agencies which are supported by levies on
members, it is largely self-financing, drawing its funding from charges
it makes for the use of its services.

DETAILED DOCUMENT

In a detailed document issued before the General Assembly opened last
week, the WIPO Secretariat rejected charges said by diplomats to be
contained in a confidential U.N. auditors' report that Idris misled the
agency about his age.

Diplomats say the report questions whether Idris could claim the 10
years of senior experience normally needed for the level of the post he
took up when joining WIPO in 1982.

It says, according to the envoys, that he signed several documents
giving his birth date as 1945 whereas in fact he was born in 1954. WIPO
officials have said that this was an error that Idris later corrected
of his own accord.

The officials say he did not profit from the mistake, while Tichenor
said the report suggested that it helped him to get positions and
benefits to which he was not entitled.

The agency's Secretariat statement, issued on September 21, says leaks
about the contents of the report circulating widely in Geneva, were
part of "relentless efforts" over three years to destabilize WIPO and
harass Idris.

---------------------------------
Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
voice +41.22.791.6727
fax +41.22.723.2988
mobile +41 76 508 0997
thiru@keionline.org