Government experts and specialists from relevant intergovernmental organizations, private sector, consumer associations and academia of the UNECE member states will be meeting in Geneva on 8 and 9 July 2010 in the context of the UNECE Team of Specialists on Intellectual Property (TOS-IP) to exchange experiences and good practices in the field of intellectual property (IP).
This 4th session of the UNECE TOS-IP will address issues related to commercialization, protection and enforcement of intellectual property and work on policy recommendations to facilitate the effective regulatory protection of IPR and strengthen their role in innovative development.
For an economy to be competitive and innovative, a well-designed IP regime is required. Hence, there is a necessity for a sound regulatory framework and cross-border know-how in the commercialization, protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPR). UNECE member countries, however, represent different levels of economic development and some of them lack experience in the field of IP. The missing expertise is a hurdle for innovation and consequently economic growth. Therefore, during the session, experts will engage in numerous discussions and exchange knowledge in the field in order to foster better management of IP in all UNECE member states.
The meeting will be divided in two parts. The first will focus on commercialization and protection of IPR in public research organizations and innovative enterprises. In the second part issues in cross-border IPR enforcement will be discussed.
The commercialization segment will address the following issues:
The enforcement of IPR is crucial as it protects innovative enterprises from losses related to piracy and counterfeiting. Therefore, TOS-IP will extensively discuss the following issues in the enforcement segment:
The session of TOS-IP gives international experts on IP an opportunity to learn from good practices in other member countries and contribute to creating a policy framework and guidelines on IP protection and enforcement, which benefit all UNECE members.
For further information, please visit:http://www.unece.org/ceci/documents/2010/ip/session4tosip10.html

Mr. Ralph Heinrich 
Secretary to the UNECE Team of Specialists on Intellectual Property 
Economic Cooperation and Integration Division 
Phone: +41 (0) 22 917 1269 
E-mail: [email protected] 

Ref: ECE/ECID/10/P05