A mission from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) was in Bhutan to discuss and finalize the on-going and future cooperation activities between the WIPO and the Department of Intellectual Property (DoIP), Ministry of Economic Affairs. On behalf of the WIPO, Mr. David Simmons, Counsellor at the Regional Bureau of Asia and the Pacific in the WIPO was in Bhutan from 11 to 15 March 2019. During the mission, Mr. Simmons and DoIP discussed on the following:

1. IP Office Diagnostic Report

Mr. Simmons and DoIP discussed and reviewed the IP Office Diagnostic Report for finalization. This Report was prepared by WIPO in 2017 to assess the gaps in the legal environment, resources, infrastructure, business processes, organizational competency and work efficiency and identify areas for improvement to enable DoIP to achieve excellent efficiency and effectiveness in delivering intellectual property services.

2. Country Technical Assistance Implementation Plan (CTAIP)

The mission and the DoIP discussed on the CTAIP to ensure more organized and structured approach towards cooperation in their developmental activities. Currently, the WIPO’s technical assistance to Bhutan are largely on ad-hoc basis. By means of CTAIP, the DoIP and WIPO will be able to strategically plan, propose and implement technical assistance based on needs and more structured manner.

3. Discussion on potentiality of establishing a National IP Training Centre in Bhutan.

With the aim to establish a national level IP training center in Bhutan, a preliminary discussion was held to identify potential institutions in the country that could take up as the national IP training center. This is based on WIPO’s objective to enable its member countries to create their own self-sustaining IP training capacity focused on specific national goals and priority.

4. Discussion on support to the National IP Policy.

The mission and the DoIP discussed the areas of collaborations to implement the National IP Policy, which was adopted by the Government in 2018. A discussion was also held on how best IP policy could be implemented in the absence of a national innovation policy.

The mission also made a courtesy call with Dasho Yeshi Wangdi, the Secretary of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.