465. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) undertakes an extensive range of technical cooperation activities relating to the implementation of the TRIPS Agreement. Our technical assistance to Members covers a wide spectrum of intellectual property (IP) areas, including patents, trademarks, copyright, industrial designs, and IP enforcement.
466. There are three main categories of technical assistance that we provide to governments: policy and legislative advice, national IP strategies, and IP office business solutions.
467. Based on requests from Members, WIPO provides IP policy and legislative advice tailored to the specific needs and level of socio-economic development of the requesting country. In this regard, WIPO assists Members in drafting new law or amending existing law, as well as advise Members on the implementation of flexibilities contained in international treaties.
468. WIPO also assists developing countries and least developed countries (LDCs) to formulate national IP strategies to facilitate the integration of IP into their overall national development and public policy.
469. In the category of IP office business solutions, WIPO provides business systems to IP institutions in developing countries and LDCs to enable them to participate effectively in the global IP system. WIPO aims to help IP offices deliver better online services relating to filing systems, IP administration, and the digital exchange of data.
470. WIPO's technical cooperation activities also involve numerous projects managed by various sectors and divisions at WIPO. The WIPO Academy's IP Training Institutions project, for example, assists Members to establish IP training institutions to enable Members to create their own selfsustaining IP training infrastructure focused on specific national goals and priorities.
471. The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has posed challenges to WIPO's delivery of its capacity-building activities. In response, WIPO has adapted to new ways of delivering technical assistance remotely in virtual formats such as webinars. From January to August 2020, WIPO provided approximately 300 technical assistance activities online. A number of activities specifically addressed the impact of COVID-19 on different areas of IP. Moreover, WIPO has taken several initiatives to facilitate technical cooperation in the context of stimulating innovation to fight the pandemic. These initiatives include the COVID-19 IP Policy Tracker, which provides information on measures adopted by IP offices in response to COVID-19; the inclusion of COVID-19 terminology in WIPO PEARL, a multilingual portal that enhances the sharing of scientific and technical terms derived from patent documents; and the addition of a new COVID-19 related search functionality in the global patent database PATENTSCOPE.
472. WIPO is fully committed to continuing its legal and technical assistance to support the efforts of Members in fulfilling their TRIPS obligations.