Preceding Committees and Meetings
The Program and Budget for the 1998-1999 biennium provided for the establishment of the Advisory Committee on Protection of Industrial Property Rights in Global Electronic Commerce (ACP/IP) and the Advisory Committee on Management of Copyright and Related Rights in Global Information Networks (ACMC). In the Program and Budget for the 2000-2001 biennium, the ACP/IP was renamed Advisory Committee on Enforcement of Industrial Property Rights (ACE/IP) and provision was made to include enforcement issues within the mandate of the ACMC, which became the Advisory Committee on Management and Enforcement of Copyright and Related Rights in Global Information Networks (ACMEC).
At the First Session of the ACE/IP, held in Geneva on October 19 and 20, 2000, the Committee adopted a Summary by the Chair, which included a recommendation that it meet jointly with the ACMEC in 2001, to discuss the enforcement of all intellectual property rights.
The Joint Meeting of the ACE/IP (Second Session) and of the ACMEC (Third Session) took place in Geneva from December 18 to 20, 2001. The Joint Meeting identified and considered a number of issues to be addressed by the Committees. It recommended that a meeting on enforcement issues with a clearly defined agenda be convened in 2002, and that the WIPO General Assembly decide to convene the Advisory Committees or one single Advisory Committee on Enforcement at its session of September 2002.
Following this recommendation, a Consultation Meeting on Enforcement was held from September 11 to 13, 2002, in which various issues pertaining to the enforcement of intellectual property rights were discussed, based in particular on the documents prepared by the WIPO Secretariat relating to training needs and development of enforcement strategies (document WIPO/CME/2 Rev.), and issues concerning difficulties and practices in the field of enforcement (WIPO/CME/3).
Shortly after this Consultation Meeting on Enforcement, the WIPO General Assembly, at its September 23 to October 1, 2002 session, approved the establishment of the Advisory Committee on Enforcement (ACE) (see document WO/GA/28/7, paragraphs 114(i) and 120).