The Sixty-Fourth Series of Meetings of the Assemblies of the Member States of World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) which stays from July 6 to 14, 2023 is taking place at the WIPO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
Ethiopia is represented by H.E Mr. Woldu Yemessel Director General of the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Authority, H.E Mr. Tsegab Kebebew, Ambassador Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary, Permanent Representative of the FDRE to the United Nations Office at Geneva and other international Organizations in Switzerland and other delegates.
On the today’s session of speech by Country delegates, H.E Mr. Woldu appreciated WIPO’s key role in ensuring effective and development-oriented implementation of global IP system that supports developing countries, particularly LDCs in harnessing their resources towards knowledge-based sustainable development. Despite some critical challenges, Ethiopia’s homegrown growth and transformation plan, which is a pathway to prosperity, has resulted in significant progress. It has also created conducive situation for the development of competitive IP system, He added.
He has also vowed the commitment of Ethiopia to double its efforts in fast tracking the approval of its national IP policy and the revision of some of our laws to facilitate the process of accession to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property and the Madrid protocol.
On our national capacity, we are working on a proclamation for the IP protection of TK and Traditional Cultural Expressions. We have also recently launched an initiative to establish legal framework for Geographical Indicator based rights.
The Ethiopian delegates will also meet WIPO’s Director General and have side meetings.