Francis Gurry, incumbent WIPO director general, left, and Daren Tang, incoming director general. (Credit: Intellectual Property Office of Singapore)World Intellectual Property Organization Appoints New Director General
Daren Tang, who has led the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore since 2015, is the first Asian to hold the top job at the United Nations agency.
May 11, 2020 at 11:25 AM
2 minute read
The World Intellectual Property Organization has appointed Daren Tang from Singapore as its next director general. Tang will be the first Asian to hold the top job at the United Nations specialized agency.
Tang, who will start a six-year term with WIPO in October, is currently chief executive of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore. Tang, an international law specialist, joined IPOS in 2012 as a deputy to then-chief executive Tan Yih San, and succeeded Tan in 2015. Before IPOS, he served as senior state counsel with Singapore's Attorney General's Chambers, representing the country in international law disputes.
During Tang's tenure as IPOS head, Singapore launched a 10-year plan to upgrade the city-state into a global intellectual property hub in Asia. The scheme aims to develop Singapore to be a center for IP filings, transactions as well as dispute resolution. In its 2019 Global Competitiveness Report, the World Economic Forum placed Singapore second (after Finland) in terms of IP protection among 141 economies around the globe.
In a videotaped speech accepting his appointment, Tang outlined key plans for leading WIPO, emphasizing the importance of building an inclusive, balanced and forward-looking global IP ecosystem. "We have to overcome not just the urgent and extraordinary challenge that confronts all of us at present, but also the deeper forces of unilateralism and parochialism that threaten to undermine the very basic tenets of our institution," Tang said.
Tang was nominated to the director general position in March by an 83-member committee and was confirmed last week by WIPO's general assembly through an unprecedented written procedure after the agency canceled or postponed in-person meetings due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Tang won the nomination after defeating Wang Binying, a Chinese national and a current deputy director general.
Tang will take over from Australian Francis Gurry, WIPO's current director general, who has served two six-year terms since 2008. Geneva-based WIPO is funded by filing fees. In 2019, the organization generated revenue of 457.6 million Swiss francs ($470.7 million).
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