WIPO AV Diplomatic Conference to resume in June 2012

The General Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) has unanimously agreed to reconvene the Diplomatic Conference on the Protection of Audiovisual Performances, which was suspended in the year 2000 when negotiating parties failed to reach agreement on the transfer of rights. After a stalemate of many years, a compromise agreement was reached from within the industry on this substantive issue, paving the way to a successful conclusion of this negotiation that will acknowledge - for the first time at international level – the moral and economic intellectual property rights of performers working in audiovisual media.

The Diplomatic Conference will take place in Beijing, China, from June 20 to 26, 2012. FIA will attend with a robust delegation to actively promote a consensual conclusion of this historical negotiation. By decision of the General Assembly, the Diplomatic Conference’s one and only mandate will be to finalise the work done in 2000, building on – and without revisiting - the body of provisions that were provisionally approved back then. Among the items left to finalise are three more agreed statements, one addition to the Preamble and a number of administrative provisions.