The Postal History of ICAO

United Nations : World Intellectual Property Organization

Issue date: 11/03/1977

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and United Nations (UN) specialized Agencies postage stamps are reproduced on this souvenir card. The descriptive text indicates WIPO’s mission. Facsimile signature of the Secretary General, Kurt Waldheim. Size: 8" x 6".

The United Nations issued three stamps (F.s. 0.80, 31 cent and 13 cent, reproduced on the card) to mark the 10^th anniversary of the signing of the WIPO Convention.

Souvenir card with the Geneva date cancellation on the F.s. 0.80 red stamp:

Souvenir card with the New York date cancellation on the 13-cent mustard stamp:

Approved die proof on 15 September 1976 by Mr. Ole Hamann, chief of the United Nations Postal Administration (UNPA):

Souvenir card mounted on an album page with the UN emblem on the left-side.

Background: The year 1883 marked the birth of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, the first major international treaty designed to help the people of one country obtain protection in other countries for their intellectual creations in the form of industrial property rights. The Paris Convention entered into force in 1884 with 14 member States, which set up an International Bureau to carry out administrative tasks, such as organizing meetings of the member States.

In 1886, copyright entered the international arena with the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. The aim of this Convention was to help nationals of its member States obtain international protection of their right to control, and receive payment for, the use of their creative works.

Like the Paris Convention, the Berne Convention set up an International Bureau to carry out administrative tasks. In 1893, these two small bureaux united to form an international organization called the United International Bureaux for the Protection of Intellectual Property (best known by its French acronym BIRPI, Bureaux Internationaux Réunis pour la Protection de la Propriété Intellectuelle). Based in Berne, Switzerland, with a staff of seven, this small organization was the predecessor of the World Intellectual Property Organization of today and administered the Paris Convention for the Protection of Intellectual Property of 20 March 1883 and the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works of 9 September 1886.

As the importance of intellectual property grew, the structure and form of the Organization changed as well. In 1960, BIRPI moved from Berne to Geneva to be closer to the United Nations and other international organizations in that city.

WIPO was established by the signing of the WIPO Convention (or Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization) at Stockholm, Sweden on 14 July 1967 with a mandate from its Members States to promote the protection of international intellectual property throughout the world through cooperation among states and in collaboration with other international organizations. On April 26 1970, following the entry into force of the Convention on the World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO officially succeeded the BIRPI. WIPO headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland. In 1974, WIPO became a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) system of organizations. The year 1977 marks the 10^th anniversary of the signing of the WIPO Convention.

WIPO promotes the protection of industrial property, such as inventions, trademarks and industrial designs, and copyright, such as literacy, musical and artistic works, maps and technical drawings, photographic works and motion pictures.

The souvenir card shows a reproduction of the following stamps:

1. The three commemorative stamps issued by the UN on 11 March 1977, showing WIPO’s Headquarters building in Geneva;

2. Other commemorative stamps issued by the UN relate to: UPU (1953), FAO (1954), ILO (1954), ICAO (1955), UNESCO (1955), ITU (1956), WHO (1956), WMO (1957), IAEA (1958), IBRD (1960), IMF (1961), IMCO (1964