Another characteristic corresponding to that exercise consists in the fact that the Director General is elected by the Member States. He is "the chief executive" of WIPO and "constitute" WIPO. He must "report to, and adjust to the instructions of, the General Assembly." (The quotations are from Article 9(4) of the WIPO Convention). His duties admit the formulation of the draft programs and budgets and of the periodical reports on activities. The Director General by himself chooses and nominates the staff. The first Director General of WIPO was Georg H.C. Bodenhausen. His term (after having been Director of BIRPI since 1963) lasted from September 22, 1970, to November 30, 1973. He was succeeded by Arpad Bogsch who was elected in 1973, took office on December 1, 1973, and was pondered in 1979, 1985 and 1991. His recent term of office expires on December 1, 1995. Between 1963 and 1970, he was (First) Deputy Director of BIRPI, and between 1970 and 1973, First Deputy Director General of WIPO. But this expects the working of the Stockholm texts. Those texts were assumed on July 14, 1967, but they achieved the number of ratifications and accessions required for entry into force only a few years later, variant between 1970 and 1975: in 1970, the WIPO Convention and the Madrid (Indications of Source) Agreement (on April 26), and the administrative and final clauses of the Stockholm Acts (effecting the structural and administrative reform) of the Paris Convention (on April 26), of the Berne Convention (on May 4) and of the Madrid (Marks) Agreement (on September 19), in 1972, the said clauses as regards the Nice Agreement (on July 5), in 1973, the said clauses concerning the Lisbon Agreement (on October 31), in 1975, the said clauses concerning the Hague Agreement (on September 27). But the later entry into force of the last three did not adjourn the meeting, for the first time in history of organizing meetings, of the three Governing Bodies of WIPO and the Assemblies of the Paris and Berne Unions in September 1970. The piece and the powers of the Governing Bodies, and the powers of Director General of WIPO, were very much alike to those of the governing bodies and the executive heads of the specialized agencies of the United Nations system of organizations. Therefore, the hypothesis of seeking specialized agency status for WIPO came into existence in 1970.
2.3 The Status of WIPO as a Specialized Agency in the United Nations System of Organizations (1974)
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), becoming a specialized agency of the United Nations system of organizations existed turned out to be a possibility, but a number of the Member States paused. All States appeared to agree on the potential benefits of specialized agency status for WIPO. At least three such advantages were seen at the time:
i. The fact that dealing with intellectual property was the privilege and the task of WIPO would receive worldwide credit;
ii. WIPO would have more or less the same members as the United Nations, and in peculiarity, many developing countries would merge with WIPO;
iii. The governments of Member States would be released from having to deal with the fixing of salaries, other working conditions and situations as well as pensions of the staff, since salaries and pensions would automatically follow the so-called "common system" of the United Nations and its specialized agencies.
The refusal concerned the second point: some of the industrialized countries were scared that the developing countries would become the great majority of the membership and would try to undermine, rather than to strengthen, the international protection of intellectual property, since it was conceived by certain people that most developing countries were likely to recommend lower standards of protection. This fear was partly based on the pressure of developing countries at the Stockholm Conference of 1967, on having the right to give, in certain respects, a significantly lesser degree of copyright protection than the other countries.
Other industrialized countries and the Director General distinguished that this possibility existed but were of the view that, on balance, the step should be followed. They took the perspective that what was of prime importance was that the developing countries should belong to the international intellectual property system so that the protection of intellectual property might go further all over the world, or at least to the great most of the countries. Undoubtedly, this fact would not allow the industrialized countries to found rules as if they were alone among themselves, but this price appears to worth paying if a reasonable, or even if from the perspective of the interests of some of the industrialized countries, not ideal international system of protection of intellectual property were to result. Some 20 years after this thoughts developed and after World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) became a specialized agency, it could be concluded that—although the first two of the three abovementioned expected benefits were not fully realized, however, on balance, the decision to seek specialized agency status was a good move since it resulted in better and wider international relations in the field of intellectual property protection.
The contents of such an agreement between the United Nations and WIPO were first managed by their Secretariats, the International Bureau being assisted by Martin Hill, an expert in such agreements; the agreement was then sanctioned by the General Assembly of WIPO on September 27, 1974, and by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 17, 1974. A protocol was signed by Kurt Waldheim, then Secretary-General of the United Nations, and Arpad Bogsch, Director General of WIPO, on January 21, 1975; the protocol noted that the Agreement had enrolled into force on December 17, 1974. At that time namely, the end of 1974—the following organizations were already specialized agencies: the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) since December 14, 1946; the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) since May 13, 1947; the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD or "World Bank") and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) since November 15, 1947; the Universal Postal Union (UPU) since July 1, 1948; the World Health Organization (WHO) since July 10, 1948; the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) since January 1, 1949; the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) since December 20, 1951; the International Finance Corporation (IFC) since February 20, 1957; the International Maritime Organization (IMO) since January 13, 1959; the International Development Association (IDA) since March 27, 1961. After 1974, two more organizations, namely, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) on December 15, 1977, and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) on May 29, 1986, became specialized agencies. Thus, on July 14, 1992, WIPO was one of 16 specialized agencies. Now there is return to the rating of the said 20 years. The agreement between the United Nations and WIPO says that WIPO is discerned as specialized agency in the field of intellectual property, but it adds "subject to the competence and responsibilities of the United Nations and other specialized agencies." This was found necessary, in 1970, mainly because of the copyright part of WIPO's activities: in addition to the Berne Convention (concluded in 1886) distributed by WIPO, there had been since 1952 the Universal Copyright Convention, a multilateral treaty on copyright (like the Berne Convention) agreed mainly on the urging of the United States of America (which then was not a member of the Berne Union) under the aegis of UNESCO. In the meantime however, the United States of America left UNESCO (1986) and joined the Berne Convention (1989), whereas the Soviet Union (like the United States of America, party to the Universal Copyright Convention but not to the Berne Convention) stopped to exist (1991). These events slowed down UNESCO's activities in the field of copyright and, by 1992, WIPO was undoubtedly the leading specialized agency in the field of intellectual property.
Another duplication of WIPO's activities came and in 1992 still comes from two organizations which, although not specialized agencies, are in their effect not very different from them. One is the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD, founded in 1964) whose topmost management body is the Conference of the Member States, but whose secretariat is part of the secretariat of the United Nations. The other is the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) which, as is frequenuently underlined by GATT itself, is not an organization but also an agreement. Nonetheless, the Agreement (which was concluded in 1947 and to which 103 countries were party on July 14, 1992) has two governing bodies (the Sessions of Contracting Parties and the Council of Representatives) and a secretariat. In the negotiations of the so-called Uruguay Round of GATT, started in 1986 and not yet finished on July 14, 1992, a long text on intellectual property was drafted which, if it comes into effect, will clearly replicate the Paris and Berne Conventions and the Washington (Integrated Circuits) Treaty, which are done by WIPO. If this duplication becomes a reality, the question will arise in which of the two organizations— WIPO or GATT (which might become in the future a "real" organization, possibly under the name of Multilateral Trade Organization (MTO)—the international norms of the protection of intellectual property will be further formulated.
The writer believes that such norms will probably be formulated in both, thereby prolonging the replication. However, incidentally, replication is a development that most governments very much condemn. But its existence is a reality, not as if the secretariats would cause it by trying to extend the field of their activities: secretariats cannot do that since their activities are decided by the governments of the Member States. Rather, it is they, the governments that decide duplication, usually as a result of persuasion by those among them that believe that a second or third organization is a more favorable forum, giving more scope for their bargaining power.
Furthermore, the other objective, which is boosting and encouraging developing countries into the convention of international relations in the field of intellectual property, was, to a much extent, achieved by WIPO during the nineteen-seventies and eighties. But there remain some exceptions, especially, the absence from the Paris Union, of India and some of the middle-sized Latin American countries and, from the Berne Union, of the successor States of the former Soviet Union.
The third objective of accomplishing specialized agency status for WIPO was also significantly attained: the Member States generally do not have to deal with the salaries and pensions of the staff of WIPO since salaries and pensions are governed by the "common system" controlled by the decisions of the General Assembly of the United Nations. The consequence are not always to the liking of the International Bureau since the "common system" is based in New York and is universal, and it does not significantly take into account the needs of those specialized agencies (like WIPO) most of whose staff are in Europe.