Short answers, pulled from the story.
WIPO began operations on the 26th of April 1970, the date the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization entered into force. It became a specialized agency of the United Nations in 1974.
WIPO currently has 194 member states, including 190 UN member states and the Cook Islands, Holy See, and Niue. Palestine holds permanent observer status. Palau and South Sudan are the only UN-recognized countries that are not WIPO members.
WIPO derives approximately 95 percent of its revenue from fees paid by users of its global intellectual property services. In 2020, total revenue reached CHF 468.3 million, with the Patent Cooperation Treaty alone generating 76.6 percent of that total.
Daren Tang of Singapore is the Director General of WIPO. He began his first term on the 1st of October 2020 and was reappointed on the 21st of April 2026 for a second term running from the 1st of October 2026 through the 30th of September 2032.
WIPO administers 26 international treaties covering intellectual property protection, global registration systems, and classification systems. These include the Paris Convention, the Berne Convention, the Patent Cooperation Treaty, the Madrid System for trademarks, and the Hague System for industrial designs.
The WIPO Development Agenda is a set of over 45 recommendations adopted in 2004 following a proposal by Argentina and Brazil. It reoriented WIPO away from a sole focus on rights-holder protection toward incorporating developing countries, indigenous communities, and human rights considerations into international intellectual property governance.