In the wake of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, three whistleblowers from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) have called for the closure of WIPO’s Russia office.
As Reuters notes,
WIPO is the U.N.’s richest body and is almost entirely self-funded with annual revenues of over $300 million, mostly earned from patent application fees. It was created in the 1970s to promote intellectual property rights, particularly in the developing world, to further economic progress.
A letter from the whistleblowers, posted on Twitter, was signed by Miranda Brown, Christopher Mason, and Olivier Steele and is addressed to WIPO Director General Darren Tang.
According to WIPO, the WIPO Russia Office (WRO) was established in Moscow in 2014. It promotes WIPO services in Russia and Russian-language information about WIPO. It also undertakes “research, development, outreach, and capacity building activities in intellectual property (IP).”
The letter’s authors say that
The WIPO Russian office has been controversial since its opening in 2014. In November 2011, we blew the whistle to member states (including the US, UK, France, Australia, and others) on your predecessor former Director General Francis Gurry’s decision to secretly open a WIPO office in Russia without the Member States’ knowledge or consent. The WIPO legal counsel subsequently confirmed to Member States the illegality of this decision, during a meeting of the coordination committee.
They continue:
Over the...
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