Special to ag-IP-news Agency

ANKARA - The Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries was held in Istanbul on May 9-13, 2011. The purpose of the conference was to reveal the commitments and objectives for the Least Developed Countries for the coming years (2011-2020).

The Conference was held with the cooperation of the Turkish Patent Institute (TPI), World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) as well as the UN. The prominent participants of the forum were Prof. Dr. Habip ASAN, TPI director; Francis Gurry, General Director of WIPO; Cheick Sidi Diarra, UN assistant secretary general.

In addition, the ministers and senior representatives of the industrial property institutions of Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mali, Samoa, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Burma, Nepal, Uganda, Middle Africa Republic, Senegal, Sudan, Yemen and Zambia took part in the meeting.

Prof. Asan made a presentation entitled “Development of Cooperation between the Intellectual Property Partners for Encouraging Innovation and Creativity” in the opening ceremony of the Forum on May 10, 2011.

He emphasized the significant cooperation between the Institute and WIPO and tackled the projects started within this scope. The expectation of the Forum is to develop policies and strategies for intellectual property rights through a declaration to be issued by WIPO. Within this scope, technological support centers will be established in the related countries.