Delegation of Intellectual Property Agency led by Chairman of Board of Intellectual Property Agency Dr. Kamran Imanov attending at the 59th series of meetings of Assemblies of the World Intellectual Property Agency (WIPO) in Geneva met Dr. Francis Gurry – Director-general of WIPO.

Opening the meeting, Dr. Francis Gurry welcomed the delegation and gave the floor to Dr. Imanov.

K. Imanov noted that Azerbaijan was actively involved in the activities within the WIPO, and thanked Dr. Gurry for his continued contact with the Agency and the WIPO for providing the necessary assistance.

Speaking about the current situation in the field of intellectual property in Azerbaijan, the Chairman of the Agency noted that a new structure of the intellectual property system was created under the large-scale reforms implemented in the country at the initiative of the Head of State. The Agency is working to create a Center for Commercialization and Technology Support, a digital rights management mechanism in the field of copyright has been created.

He then said that "it is a redesign of the existing national patent legislation that is of special importance to us and our country plans to join the Patent Law Treaty (PLT) in the near future. Significant work has also been done on the creation of start-ups and spinouts jointly with the WIPO, including the provision of tax preferences for them. Even we have exhibitions about startups almost every month”. K. Imanov emphasized: "The basis of this good tradition is laid in the WIPO, for the first time we presented our startups at the exhibition here".

The Head of the Agency added that there are new aspects of cooperation with WIPO on the agenda. “Firstly, we are interested in improving the patent legislation as a whole. We believe that the patent and copyright legislation must develop in mutual relations. In contrast, patent law has a controversial point, such as disclosure of a lawsuit filed without the consent of the right holder. Or the contradiction with the notion of temporary protection: the retrospective method of the Bern Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works could be used to eliminate it”.

“At the same time, we are very interested in the positive experience gained through the WIPO on the use of artificial intelligence. We would like to take advantage of this experience and propose a joint event for this purpose. One of the main issues that interest us here is the legislative provision of the use of artificial intelligence. In this regard, we would be thankful to WIPO for providing an overview of current approaches in the world.” – he said.

K. imanov continued his speech: "We are always aware of new and promising work and themes implemented by WIPO and we would like to discuss one of those topics – “Intellectual property and mobile applications” at a roundtable to be organized jointly with WIPO in Azerbaijan".

Dr. Gurry thanked Mr. Imanov for his high appreciation of his work and noted the head of Agency is "in a leading position, as always", taking into account his suggestions. He emphasized that the speech of the Head of the Azerbaijani Delegation at the plenary session of the General Assembly covers the most modern issues of intellectual property and highly appreciates this speech.

Touching Mr. Imanov's opinion on mutual development ofpatents and copyrights, Dr. F. Garry said that the intellectual property system is living in a time of change and that Azerbaijan's adequate position to these changes is "the right direction."

On the issue of artificial intelligence, the WIPO Director General said that due diligence on the issue would be drafted and made available to the general public in early November of this year and open to the proposals of public. "We would be very pleased with Azerbaijan's participation in this process," he said.

Noting that mobile applications cover all areas in the modern era, Dr. Gurry said this issue is very interesting and quite complicated.

The meeting also discussed the issue of being represented in the Secretariat of the organization, which is important to each member of the WIPO. In this regard, Dr. Gurry has positively responded to Dr. Imanov's proposal to represent Azerbaijan in this structure and stated that a decision will be make in this regard in the near future.

The parties also discussed the current issues on the agenda of the WIPO General Assembly.

Ambassador of Permanent Mission of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the UN Office at Geneva and other International Organizations in Switzerland Mr. Vagif Sadigov attended at the meeting.