The United International Bureaux for the Protection of Intellectual Property (BIRPI) was an international organization. It was set up in 1893 to administer the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works

Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works

The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne Convention, is an international agreement governing copyright, which was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland in 1886.- Content :...

 and the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property

Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property

The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, signed in Paris, France, on March 20, 1883, was one of the first intellectual property treaties. It established a Union for the protection of industrial property...

. The BIRPI is the predecessor of the World Intellectual Property Organization

World Intellectual Property Organization

The World Intellectual Property Organization is one of the 17 specialized agencies of the United Nations. WIPO was created in 1967 "to encourage creative activity, to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world"....

 (WIPO).

BIRPI is an acronym for Bureaux Internationaux Réunis pour la Protection de la Propriété Intellectuelle (French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 for "United International Bureaux for the Protection of Intellectual Property").

History

In 1893, the International Bureau established by the Paris Convention and the International Bureau established by Bern Convention, both to carry out administrative tasks, merged to form the BIRPI. Originally based in Bern, Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, the BIRPI moved to Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

 in 1960. The last director of the BIRPI was Georg Bodenhausen

Georg Bodenhausen

Prof. Georg Hendrik Christiaan Bodenhausen was a Dutch civil servant. He was director of the United International Bureaux for the Protection of Intellectual Property from 1963 to 1970, and the first director-general of the World Intellectual Property Organization from 1970 to 1973.-...

.