The director of WIPO Technical Assistance Department for Latin America and the Caribbean, Alejandro Roca Campana, said the initiatives are applied to industry, representing goods and services available to the people.

He added that every two or three years the Cuban government comes with an outstanding invention to the organization. WIPO reviews all the information provided by OCPI (the Cuban Industrial Property Office) and validates the inventions.

The first WIPO Gold Medal earned by the Caribbean country was granted in December 1989, for the work carried out by Concepcion Campa and colleagues, from the Finlay Institute, who created the vaccine against meningitis, so far the only effective of its kind worldwide.

The latest two awards, in April 2007, involved experts from the National Center for Scientific Research and the National Center for Agricultural and Livestock Health, respectively, for their inventions of the Set and Method for a Quick Microbiological Diagnosis (DIRAMIC) and the swine lung surfactant (SURFACEN).

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations. It is dedicated to developing a balanced and accessible international intellectual property (IP) system, which rewards creativity, stimulates innovation and contributes to economic development while safeguarding the public interest.

WIPO was established in 1967 to promote the protection of IP throughout the world through cooperation among states and in collaboration with other international organizations. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland.


(marhaba.net)