On July 1st and 2nd, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) will be hosting an Inter-Regional Forum in Geneva, Switzerland, to assist least-developed countries (LDCs) with building and growing their respective intellectual property (IP) offices. As noted by the WIPO press release (link below), “[t]he Forum will focus on practical measures that may be taken to improve and expand the range of value-added services available to all stakeholders, including the public, to forge relations with the IP user community and to ensure that IP administrations are better able to support national development objectives.” According to the press release, “[t]he Forum will examine the complexities of the development and service-oriented role of IP administrations and will provide an opportunity for officials who are at the front-line of IP system administration to exchange ideas and experiences,” and “[p]articipants will further have an opportunity to explore new approaches to the challenges currently facing IP administrations, in terms of workload, organizational efficiency and the delivery of value-added services.” Additional information regarding this seminar is provided within the various conference links below.

WIPO Announcement: LINK
Conference Webpage: LINK
Provisional Conference Agenda (PDF): LINK