Director General Daren Tang Opens WIPO Assemblies Meetings
Geneva, Switzerland, July 9, 2025 / TRAVELINDEX / Director General Daren Tang welcomed the biggest-ever contingent of delegates to a WIPO Assemblies meeting on Tuesday, calling for collective action to ensure that the global intellectual property (IP) ecosystem continues to evolve in supporting the world’s innovators and creators.
In opening the Assemblies of the Member States of WIPO: Sixty-Sixth Series of Meetings, Mr. Tang addressed some 1,600 registered delegates, many at the ministerial level, while reporting on WIPO’s sound finances and offering a proposed 2026-27 work plan for consideration and action by delegates.
Mr. Tang welcomed the Federated States of Micronesia as WIPO’s 194th member state and called on delegates to work together to further advance their work in ensuring that IP supports economic, cultural and social growth around the world.
“In these troubled times, it is more important than ever to remind ourselves of what we share in common and what unites us. And here at WIPO what brings us together is our belief in the human spirit of imagination, invention, innovation and creativity,” said Mr. Tang, who thanked Ambassador Alfredo Suescum, Panama’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, for his leadership as Chair of the WIPO General Assembly.
“This is the spirit that gave us fire, the wheel, agriculture, medicine and science. In more recent times, it has driven the creation of the internet, new modes of transport and communication and the breakthroughs we’re now witnessing in medicine and artificial intelligence,” he said, adding: “As the global IP community, our common responsibility to humankind is to nurture this spirit. For in doing so, we are not merely protecting ideas – we are advancing what is fundamental to the human race.”
Between July 8-17, 2025, delegates will review the Organization’s recent performance, work to fine-tune the treaties and global IP registries administered by WIPO that spread innovation and creativity around the world and consider for adoption the proposed 2026-27 program of work and budget.
Despite challenges and headwinds, global innovation activity remains resilient, Mr. Tang said: Every minute, more than 40 IP applications are filed somewhere in the world.
It’s among the indicators, he said, illustrating a shift in value from tangible assets like factories to intangible assets, like data, software and brands as countries and enterprises innovate, create and digitalize. WIPO estimates that the global value of intangible assets has reached almost US$80 trillion last year, more than the size of the world’s largest economies put together, he said.
Through WIPO’s filing services that help individuals and enterprises spread their IP into overseas markets, revenues in 2024 reached nearly CHF500 million. Investment gains totaled CHF74 million and WIPO closed the year with a surplus of CHF140 million, Mr. Tang said.
Mr. Tang reviewed WIPO’s recent efforts across its four main pillars of work, noting that WIPO’s programs, projects and support had reached 400,000 youth, 300,000 women and 200,000 SMEs in the past four years – groups traditionally under-represented in the use of the global IP system.
WIPO’s international filings through the Patent Cooperation Treaty, Madrid System (for trademarks) and Hague System (designs) all returned to growth last year, and that the Organization marked a major milestone in registering the five-millionth PCT application, said Mr. Tang.
“With your support, we have undertaken a journey of transformation at WIPO and also at the global IP ecosystem to make IP relevant, concrete and visible for all, ensuring that IP is not just for the few, but for the many,” said Mr. Tang.
“We can be proud that we as the global IP community have touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of people around the world, but there are many more who need our help and support to bring their ideas to the market and make their aspirations come alive.”
