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WIPO launched on June 1, 2010, WIPO GOLD, a free, on-line global intellectual property (IP) reference resource that provides quick and easy access to a broad collection of searchable IP data and tools relating to, for example, technology, brands, designs, statistics, WIPO standards, IP classification systems and IP laws and treaties.
“The launch of WIPO GOLD is a significant step towards fulfilling one of the Organization’s strategic goals – that of serving as a world reference source for IP information and analysis,” said Director General Francis Gurry. “The WIPO GOLD portal is a rich, dynamic and evolving information tool that will continue to be expanded and improved over time,” he added.

WIPO is committed to narrowing the global knowledge gap by facilitating the free-flow of IP information globally, and by improving access to and use of IP information. For example, much of the technological information found in patent documents is not published elsewhere. Patent documents, therefore, represent an extremely valuable resource in today’s knowledge-based societies.

Powerful databases, such as WIPO’s PATENTSCOPE® search service, makes it possible to conduct, free-of-charge, high-quality searches of data relating to over 1.7 million international patent applications filed under the PCT, and patent data collections of a growing number of countries.

She has served in the office of the director general since April 2009, according to her biography, and was previously the director of Planning, Resource Coordination and Performance Monitoring. She came to Geneva with prior experience in the WHO regional office for the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMRO) and the regional office for Europe.

The previous director of PHI, Precious Matsoso, departed shortly after the WHO’s annual World Health Assembly in May to take up a position of Director General of Health in her native South Africa. There are several other recent additions to PHI, including another EMRO alumni, Zafar Mirza, who is currently taking over the duties of German Velasquez, who recently joined the South Centre (IPW, WHO, 23 April 2010).