[Ip-health] AP: Australia, Brazil, Pakistan lead in vote for new U.N. patent chief

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

  Australia, Brazil, Pakistan lead in vote for new U.N. patent chief

The Associated Press
Tuesday, May 13, 2008

GENEVA: Candidates from Australia, Brazil and Pakistan emerged as the
front-runners Tuesday to head the U.N. patent agency.

Australian Francis Gurry received 24 votes in a poll of the World
Intellectual Property Organization's 83 core members.

Brazil's Jose Graca Aranha and Masood Khan of Pakistan followed, with
16 and 13 votes respectively. Several more rounds of voting will take
place, with a winner not expected before Wednesday.

The agency known as WIPO is holding early elections for the top job
after its current director-general resigned over questions about his
integrity.

Kamil Idris agreed to step down a year before the end of his second
term after Western governments demanded his resignation and blocked
talks on the agency's future funding.

An internal audit revealed that Idris joined the body claiming his
birth date was 1945, which helped him land the job and win promotions.
He later changed it to 1954 in a switch that could enhance his
retirement benefits.

His 1982 application also listed among his qualifications a master's
degree in international law from Ohio University, but a university
spokeswoman has said he obtained a Master of Arts in African Studies.

Idris, a Sudanese national, says he gave the wrong age due to a
typographical error when he first applied to work for the agency in
1982. He rejects allegations he sought to benefit from the
misstatement, or from the correction. As part of a deal to step down
early, Idris secured the right to draw a salary of over US$300,000
(=80194,400) until the end of his regular term in September 2009, and
full pension benefits after that.

Candidates for the post have stressed the need to reform the World
Intellectual Property Organization's management structure and ensure
the accountability of its leadership.

A report last year by external auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers
described a chaotic staffing situation at the organization, with
employees having low morale and taking unreasonable amounts of sick
leave.

Western diplomats are eager to restore confidence in the organization,
which is viewed as increasingly important within the U.N. system
because of the growing economic value countries place on copyrights,
patents and other means of protecting intellectual property.

Gurry, a long-serving official at Geneva-based WIPO, is credited with
setting up the agency's Internet domain name mediation service. The
body acts as the world's top court in disputes over who has the right
to use Web addresses.

Aranha heads WIPO's department for the registration of international
trademarks and industrial designs. Khan is Pakistan's ambassador to
the U.N. in Geneva.

Bangladesh, Philippines, Kenya, France, Russia, Japan, Honduras,
Poland and Mexico also have put forward candidates.

The winner will be confirmed by the agency's general assembly in
September.


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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