Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus V.Makei meets the WIPO Director General

05 June 2019

05-06-2019

On June 5, 2019 the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, Vladimir Makei, met with Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Francis Gurry.

Background Information: WIPO is an international organization established in 1967, since 1974 also serves as a specialized UN agency. Currently, 192 states are members of WIPO.

During the meeting, the sides discussed the cooperation of Belarus with the World Intellectual Property Organization, strengthening our country's position in the Global Innovation Index, the possibility of attracting Belarusian specialists to the implementation of WIPO projects on the development of systems with artificial intelligence elements.

Background Information: the Global Innovation Index is an assessment of innovation activities in 130 countries of the world, based on more than 80 indicators. It is being developed by WIPO in cooperation with Cornell University and the French research institute INSEAD.

The issues of studying the experience of WIPO in increasing the share of trademarks and other intellectual property in exported goods and services were also considered.

On the same day, Belarusian Foreign Ministry hosted a meeting of the Scientific Advisory Council on International Law chaired by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, Oleg Kravchenko, at which F.Gurry made a presentation on the topic “International Intellectual Property in the Modern Digital Economy”.

Background Information: the Council was established in 2018 to provide scientific support for the international legal activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and promote the popularization of international law, the implementation of research results in the activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other governmental bodies. The structure includes representatives of the Foreign Ministry, leading international lawyers of the main universities of the country.