The World Intellectual Property Organization is one of the 15 specialized agencies of the United Nations. WIPO was created in 1967 "to encourage creative activity, to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world". WIPO has 192 member states, administers 26 international treaties, is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland; the current Director-General of WIPO is Francis Gurry, who took office on 1 October 2008. 188 of the UN member states as well as the Cook Islands, Holy See and Niue are members of WIPO. Non-members are the states of Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru and South Sudan. Palestine has permanent observer status; the predecessor to WIPO was the United International Bureaux for the Protection of Intellectual Property, established in 1893 to administer the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. WIPO was formally created by the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization, which entered into force on 26 April 1970.

Under Article 3 of this Convention, WIPO seeks to "promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world". WIPO became a specialized agency of the UN in 1974; the Agreement between the United Nations and the World Intellectual Property Organization notes in Article 1 that WIPO is responsible for promoting creative intellectual activity and for facilitating the transfer of technology related to industrial property to the developing countries in order to accelerate economic and cultural development, subject to the competence and responsibilities of the United Nations and its organs the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, as well as of the United Nations Educational and Cultural Organization and of other agencies within the United Nations system. The Agreement marked a transition for WIPO from the mandate it inherited in 1967 from BIRPI, to promote the protection of intellectual property, to one that involved the more complex task of promoting technology transfer and economic development.

Unlike other branches of the United Nations, WIPO has significant financial resources independent of the contributions from its Member States. In 2006, over 90 percent of its income of just over CHF 250 million was expected to be generated from the collection of fees by the International Bureau under the intellectual property application and registration systems which it administers. In October 2004, WIPO agreed to adopt a proposal offered by Argentina and Brazil, the "Proposal for the Establishment of a Development Agenda for WIPO"—from the Geneva Declaration on the Future of the World Intellectual Property Organization; this proposal was well supported by developing countries. The agreed "WIPO Development Agenda" was the culmination of a long process of transformation for the organization from one, aimed at protecting the interests of rightholders, to one that has incorporated the interests of other stakeholders in the international intellectual property system as well as integrating into the broader corpus of international law on human rights and economic cooperation.

A number of civil society bodies have been working on a draft Access to Knowledge treaty which they would like to see introduced. In December 2011, WIPO published its first World Intellectual Property Report on the Changing Face of Innovation, the first such report of the new Office of the Chief Economist. WIPO is a co-publisher of the Global Innovation Index. WIPO has established a global information network; the project seeks to link over 300 intellectual property offices in all WIPO Member States. In addition to providing a means of secure communication among all connected parties, WIPOnet is the foundation for WIPO's intellectual property services. WIPO's Economics and Statistics Division gathers data on intellectual property activity worldwide and publishes statistics to the public; the Division conducts economic analysis on how government IP and innovation policies affect economic performance. World Intellectual Property Indicators is an annual report published by the WIPO, providing a wide range of indicators covering the areas of intellectual property.

It draws on data from national and regional IP offices, the WIPO, the World Bank, UNESCO. The WIPO have published the reports annually since 2009. Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement List of parties to international copyright agreements Member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization Patent Substantive Patent Law Treaty Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy United States and the United Nations World Intellectual Property Day WIPO Lex World Intellectual Property Organization treaties Intellectual property organization Official website List of member states

M. Dane Waters is a political strategist, elephant protection advocate and designer, direct democracy advocate, he has worked on six continents providing strategic advice to campaigns, activists, academic institutions, NGO’s. He has consulted on projects with the United Nations, the U. S. Department of State and the International Republican Institute, he was a political appointee in President George H. W. Bush’s administration, served as the Political Director of the Humane Society Legislative Fund and Director of Ballot Campaigns for the Humane Society of the United States and was the National Field Director for U. S. Term Limits. Dane has worked on six U. S. Presidential campaigns – Reagan/Bush, Bush/Quayle, Phil Graham, John McCain, McCain/Palin, John Kasich, he has worked on numerous other candidate elections in the U. S. as well as prime ministerial campaigns around the world. Additionally, Dane has been involved in numerous independent expenditure campaigns as a political consultant and as the Political Director of the Humane Society Legislative Fund..

After the 2016 Republican presidential election primaries, Dane co-founded Delegates Unbound – an organization whose primary focus was on educating convention delegates that they were "unbound" and free to vote as they wished on all matters before the Republican National Convention, including whomever they wish to be the Republican nominee for President. Due to parliamentary procedures at the convention, the effort was unsuccessful and delegates were bound to vote as directed by the RNC and not based on their conscience and whom they felt would be the best candidate to represent the values of the Republican Party. However, the effort was successful in raising awareness that drastic reforms should be taken by all political parties to ensure that candidates for President represent the values of each party. During this effort Dane witnessed firsthand the vitriol that consumed and defined the 2016 Presidential election; this prompted the production of a short documentary on Dane’s experiences entitled We Love You Dane Waters.

Dane has worked on dozens of direct democracy campaigns in the U. S. and around the world and is one of the few people who has worked on all aspects of direct democracy campaigns – researching and writing on direct democracy, advising activists on direct democracy issues, helping governments draft direct democracy laws, helping win or defeat an issue on the ballot, to providing international observers to ensure that a referendum election meets internationally accepted norms. Dane began his work with ballot campaigns as the National Field Director for U. S. Term Limits where he helped place a record number of term limit initiatives on the ballot between 1992-1998; these ballot initiatives helped voters in 23 states place term limits on their congressional delegations. Today there are term limits on 36 governors, 15 state legislatures and thousands of local officials because of these term limit initiatives. Dane continued his work on direct democracy campaigns as the Director of Ballot Campaigns for the Humane Society of the United States and as a private consultant.

Dane is the founder and Chair of the Initiative & Referendum Institute at the University of Southern California – a non-profit non-partisan research and educational organization established to study direct democracy and is the co-founder of the Initiative & Referendum Institute Europe. Dane serves on the board of Democracy International, an organization that works to strengthen direct democracy opportunities around the world. Dane has authored and contributed to numerous articles and books on direct democracy and has provided commentary on governance and direct democracy issues to newspapers, radio talk shows, television stations around the world, he consulted on the television shows The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, West Wing and the Weakest Link regarding direct democracy issues. He was a regular political columnist for Elections Magazine. Dane has been active in political reform efforts serving as a member of the Harvard Appleseed Electoral Reform Project and as a board member of the Citizens in Charge Foundation.

Dane is very active in animal welfare issues the protection of elephants, is the founder of The Elephant Project, a non-profit that develops new ideas and new solutions for the long term protection of elephants. He does a regular blog and podcast on elephant issues which can be accessed by visiting The Elephant Times. Dane has been a lifelong lover of architecture and through his companies Village Building and Design LLC and M. Dane Waters Custom Homes has designed and built several award-winning homes. Assisted in the planning of “Nations United: United Nations Town Hall Meeting with U. N. Secretary General Kofi Annan” held in Atlanta, Georgia held on October 11, 2001. Assisted in the planning of the memorial service held on October 28, 2001 at Ground Zero for the families of those lost. Selected as a Campaigns & Elections Political Rising Star for 2002. Recognized by The Heritage Foundation as a “Public Policy Expert” on political and election issues. M. Dane Waters official website M. Dane Waters on Twitter Appearances on C-SPAN

For the village in the commune of Vallouise, see Ailefroide. The Ailefroide is a mountain in the Massif des Écrins in the French Alps, is the third highest peak in the Dauphiné Alps after the Barre des Écrins and La Meije, it lies at the south-western end of the Mont Pelvoux–Pic Sans Nom–Ailefroide ridge. There are three main summits on the mountain: L'Ailefroide Occidentale: first ascent by W. A. B. Coolidge with guides Christian Almer and Ulrich Almer on 7 July 1870 L'Ailefroide Centrale: first ascent by Auguste Reynier, Pierre Gaspard, Christophe Clot and Joseph Turc on 8 August 1889 L'Ailefroide Orientale: first ascent by J. Nérot, Emile Pic and Giraud-Lézin on 25 August 1880 List of mountains of the Alps above 3000 m The Ailefroide on SummitPost