The WIPO Coordination Committee will meet on May 13 and 14 to elect the new leader. At the behest of some member states, an extra day (May 15) has been allowed for the elections if needed.
The elections will see 14 candidates instead of the original
15 competing for the post after Italian nominee Mauro Masi withdrew from the race last week.
Masi, who is the Italian delegate for intellectual property, will return to Italy where he will work under newly elected Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government as the secretary general of presidency of the council of ministers.
In the two months since the candidates were nominated, all 15 of them have been campaigning, and presenting their views to civil and governmental bodies and member states.
On April 14, the contenders presented their views to member states and answered questions on how they would take WIPO forward. The next day they met with civil society groups in Geneva to discuss WIPO's relationship with such groups.
One of the candidates, Gjorgji Filipov, the Macedonian Ambassador to Germany, has set up a website as part of his campaign.
The WIPO Coordination Committee consists of representatives of 83 member states and they meet every year to discuss the agenda of the General Assembly and also have the additional responsibility of appointing a director-general when needed.
The elections will start with a straw poll in which the 83 representatives have a right to vote to mark their first and second choice candidates on the voting paper.
Voting will be by secret ballot and will proceed in several steps, with a gradual elimination of the lower-scoring candidates until a shortlist of three is reached.
If consultations on the basis of the shortlist of three candidates are not progressing, the voting process will continue. Once the list is whittled down to the last two with the most votes, a final vote will be taken.
The election will follow the rules set out in the paper Policies and Practices for the Nomination and Appointment of Directors General, which was prepared by WIPO's Coordination Committee in 1998.
Hilda Skorpen, the chair of the Coordination Committee, will communicate the name of the winning to the chairperson of the General Assembly. The new director-general will start his/her term at this year's General Assemblies, scheduled to take place from September 22 to 30.
Most member states, as well as IP associations, have not publicly expressed support for any of the candidates. But they have stressed the need for the new director-general to restore the credibility of WIPO and to instil confidence in its staff.
In the March issue Managing IP contacted all 15 candidates and interviewed them about their experience and their aims for WIPO - as well as posing a few questions about their life outside intellectual property. Subscribers and triallists can read the article online.
