WIPO, The Paris Convention from 1883 to 1983 (Geneva: WIPO 1983, excerpts).
Category Archives: III. Switzerland, the International Bureaus (BIPRI) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (1886)
WIPO, The Berne Convention from 1886 to 1986 (Geneva: WIPO 1986; excerpted).
The Hundredth Anniversary of the Berne Convention
Alois Troller, ‘The Hundredth Anniversary of the Berne Convention: the Development of Law in the Copyright Field Through the Interaction of the Convention and Swiss Legislation’, 6 Copyright Monthly Review of the World Intellectual Property Organization 28-213 (1986).
Switzerland and the WIPO today
Switzerland, the founding father of the BIRPI under Swiss law, joined the WIPO Convention at its inception in 1970. In addition to the country’s participation in 24 treaties and their respective unions, Switzerland is ex officio member of the WIPO Coordination Committee and of the Program and Budget Committee, of the Berne Union General Assembly and of the Paris Union Assembly as well as the respective sub-bodies (Executive Committees) as of 2020. The Coordination Committee and the Program and Budget Committee are two prominent bodies for the process of establishing programmes and plans for approval by the Assemblies. For many decades, the two audit officers were nominated by the Swiss Federal Finance Administration. As geographical representation of the membership broadened, this practice, probably stemming from the BIRPI era, was abandoned.