[Ip-health] WIPO press release: WIPO Member States Adopt 2008/09 Program and Budget

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2008/article_0017.html


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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 1,400 SFr to 1,330 SFr) and to increase the reduction
from 75% to 90% for countries whose per capita national income is
below US$3,000, 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 1 July 2008.


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WIPO Member States Adopt 2008/09 Program and Budget

Geneva, March 31, 2008
PR/2008/545

A one-day meeting of an extraordinary session of the World
Intellectual Property Organization=92s (WIPO) Assemblies on March 31,
2008 ended with agreement to adopt the Organization=92s program and
budget for 2008/09, as well as a 5% decrease in fees paid for
international patent applications.

The proposed level of expenditure for the 2008/09 biennium is 626.3
million Swiss Francs (SFr). The full proposed program and budget for
the 2008/09 biennium is available at http://www.wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/govbod=
y/en/a_44/a_44_2.pdf
. The program and budget 2008/09 was adopted with no prejudice to any
adjustments that may be required during the biennium.

The Chairman of the General Assembly, Ambassador Martin I. Uhomoibhi,
who is also the Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United
Nations in Geneva, said the agreement is the result =93of active
consultations and negotiations aimed at resolving all pending issues=94
since the last WIPO Assemblies session in September-October 2007.
Ambassador Uhomoibhi said =93The 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.=94
Ambassador Uhomoibhi said this session of the General Assembly will go
down in history as one of the briefest, characterized by candor and
clarity of all concerned. =93I am personally touched by this cooperative
spirit,=94 he added.

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 1,400 SFr to 1,330 SFr) and to increase the reduction
from 75% to 90% for countries whose per capita national income is
below US$3,000, 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 1 July 2008.

Speaking after the meeting, the Director General of WIPO, Dr. Kamil
Idris, welcomed today=92s decision on the program and budget for the
2008/09 biennium. He said =93The adoption of the budget today is a sign
of goodwill by all member states=85It reflects mutual understanding that
the Organization should move on.=94

For further information, please contact the Media Relations and Public
Affairs Section at WIPO:

     * Tel: (+41 22) 338 81 61 or (+41 22) 338 95 47;
     * E-mail: publicinf@wipo.int

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Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
thiru@keionline.org


Tel: +41 22 791 6727
Mobile: +41 76 508 0997