Power and autonomy of international organizations: the WIPO in the governance of intellectual property rights
Power and autonomy of international organizations: the WIPO in the governance of intellectual property rights
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5752/P.2317-773X.2020v8n1p7-26Keywords:
International organizations, World Intellectual Property Organization, Intellectual Property Rights, Political autonomyAbstract
This paper analyzes the role of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in the structuring of the international intellectual property rights regime, highlighting how its particular characteristics would confer power and autonomy on its constituency - the member-countries. Taking into account the analytical framework suggested by Barnett and Finnemore (1999) on the autonomy of international organizations, we analyse the WIPO organizational characteristics and governance mechanisms - fundamentally the role of its Executive Secretariat, the relationship with the private sector and its particular funding mechanism. The analysis of these elements and the activities carried out by WIPO clearly show a level of power and autonomy of the organization vis-à-vis the countries that comprise it, and a distance between its actions and the organization mandate, which would mean a type of dysfunctionality. However, the conclusion we have reached is that, in reality, there is a change in the WIPO dependency relationship and a kind of reconfiguration of its international function.
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