The World Intellectual Property Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (since 1974). It was originally created in 1967 (signed in Stockholm on July 14, 1967) with the stated purpose: "to encourage creative activity, [and] to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world." Currently, WIPO has 184 member states.

Before WIPO, the United International Bureau for the Protection of Intellectual Property (or BIRPI, Bureau Internationaux Réunis pour la Protection de a Propriété Intellectuelle) which was established in 1893 to administer the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property was signed on March 20, 1883 by Belgium, Brazil, France, Guatemala, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, El Salvador, Serbia, Spain and Switzerland. .

The Paris Convention established an international agreement to protect intellectual property rights including regulating commerce to ensure that protection is maintained.

Please visit siberkhem.blogspot.com for further information (see 20071207).