WIPO’s Coordination Committee Nominates Singapore’s Daren Tang for Post of Director General; Press Release, World Intellectual Property Organization, March 4, 2020

Press Release, World Intellectual Property Organization;

WIPO’s Coordination Committee Nominates Singapore’s Daren Tang for Post of Director General

"The WIPO General Assembly will meet in an extraordinary session on May 7-8, 2020, to confirm the Coordination Committee’s nomination.

The process of electing a Director General is governed by the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization and “2019 Procedures for the Nomination and Appointment of Directors General of WIPO,” adopted by Member States in October 2019.

The Coordination Committee, which comprises 83 member states, met on March 4, and held two rounds of voting from an initial list of six candidates. Kazakhstan’s candidate withdrew her candidacy ahead of the first round of voting. Following the first round, the candidate with the least votes, from Peru, was eliminated.

Two other candidates – from Colombia and Ghana – withdrew their candidatures ahead of the second round of voting.

Mr. Tang prevailed in the second and final round of voting with 55 votes; Ms. Binying Wang of China received 28 votes.

Mr. Tang...is the Chief Executive of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore.

The term of the current Director General, Mr. Francis Gurry, ends on September 30, 2020."

Singaporean named to head intellectual property agency; AP via The Washington Post, March 4, 2020

Jamey Keaten | AP via The Washington Post; Singaporean named to head intellectual property agency

"A Singaporean official defeated a candidate from China in a leadership contest for the U.N.’s intellectual property body, which was swept into a rift between Washington and Beijing over claims of Chinese theft of technological know-how.

Daren Tang, 47, the CEO of Singapore’s intellectual property office, won a crucial nomination to become the next director-general of the World Intellectual Property Organization over China’s Wang Binyang, a veteran at the agency.

The “coordination committee” handed a 55-28 victory to Tang in a final round of voting that began Wednesday with five candidates vying to replace the agency’s outgoing chief, Francis Gurry of Australia...

WIPO’s general assembly has final say in May, but it has never rejected a committee nominee since the 192-country agency was created in 1967."

Singapore’s Daren Tang to Succeed Gurry as Next WIPO Director General; IPWatchdog, March 4. 2020

IPWatchdog; Singapore’s Daren Tang to Succeed Gurry as Next WIPO Director General

"Daren Tang has been elected to be the next WIPO Director General, succeeding Francis Gurry.
 
Tang is currently the Chief Executive of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS). He has served in this capacity since 2015. Prior to that he was Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Legal Counsel for IPOS and Senior State Counsel, International Affairs Division at the Singapore Attorney-General’s Chambers. He also has served as Chairperson for WIPO’s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights."

Intellectual Property: Copyright rules make us break the law 80 times a day, says Productivity Commission; Sydney Morning Herald, 12/20/26

Peter Martin, Intellectual Property: Copyright rules make us break the law 80 times a day, says Productivity Commission:

"If you are anything like the typical Australian, you probably break the copyright law 80 times a day, according to figures included in the Productivity Commission's final report to the government on intellectual property.

Most of the breaches are harmless, things such as including a copy of an email in the reply to an email. But the commission says that laws that are routinely flouted are bad laws, bringing themselves into disrepute.

In place of the labyrinthine system of complicated rules governing what can or can't be copied, the report released on Tuesday recommends the US system of fair use, under which the use of copyrighted material is legal so long as it is fair, taking into account the purpose of the use, the nature of the work, the amount copied and the effect on the potential market value of the work."