WIPO

On 30 November 2009, a multi-stakeholder workshop was organized by the South African National Council for the Blind in Pretoria, South Africa, to discuss the 'Treaty for Improved Access for Blind, Visually Impaired and other Reading Disabled Persons' (referred to as the 'TVI'). This Treaty is on the agenda of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPOⁱ)'s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Matters (SCCRⁱ) Meeting, which will be held from 14-18 December 2009 in Geneva.

The highlight of the 18th meeting of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) has been the proposal today by Brazil, Ecuador and Paraguay of a WIPO Treaty for Blind, Visually Impaired and other Reading Disabled Persons that was drafted by the World Blind Union and presented for discussion at the previous SCCR meeting last November.

The WIPOⁱ Development Agenda

WIPO was created in 1970 to take over the role of its predecessor, the Berne-based United International Bureau for the Protection of Intellectual Property or BIRPI. French for Bureaux Internationaux Reunis pour la Protection de la Propriete Intellectualle, the BIRPI was set up in 1983 to administer the Berne Conventionⁱ for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and the Paris Conventionⁱ for the Protection of Industrial Property.