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development objectives. At national and regional levels, WIPO responds to the specific needs of member
states for legislative advice and practical assistance through “nationally focused action plans” (NFAPs). An
NFAP is tailored to the needs and requirements of a particular country and is designed to generate practical
strategies to support efforts to develop and use all forms of IP as an economic asset. Training people who
are actively involved in setting up IP infrastructure and making it work is a key component of WIPO’s
strategy.
One of the most practical ways in which WIPO supports users of the IP system worldwide is through the
services of its global protection systems (GPS). Securing protection for IP rights where registration is
required as a formality can be lengthy, complex and costly. In the absence of a global intellectual property
right, WIPO’s GPS offer users of the IP system a cost-effective and user-friendly option for obtaining
intellectual property protection in multiple countries. These services include the Patent Cooperation Treaty,
the Madrid System for the International Registration of Trademarks and the Hague System for the
International Registration of Industrial Designs. WIPO also offers services for the resolution of disputes
relating to the abusive registration of trademarks as domain names.
The Organization’s current and future activities are underpinned by a deep-rooted belief in the relevance of
intellectual property to development. WIPO’s approach is based on a growing recognition that nations and
enterprises can develop and promote the use of IP as an economic asset. The correlation between the
progress of the human race and its ability to invent and innovate is indisputable. Intellectual property is at
the heart of the endeavour.
For the first time the Bulletin is being printed by the Reproduction Service of WIPO to whom we extend our
warmest thanks for their collaboration.
PENSIONS TO-DAY
PENSIONS
Social activity in most neighbouring countries
focuses on pensions. In Switzerland, in France, in
Germany, in Italy, political actuality is full of
discussions centred on these problems.
Everywhere these problems are the same: the
relation of the number of retirees to the number of
the active population is growing: from 1 to 5 a few
years ago, forecasts indicate that it might be
between 1 to 3 and 1 to 2 in the next 40 years.
Keeping pay-as-you-go schemes afloat will thus
require new financial resources. Who is going to
bear the cost of this additional financing ? The
retirees, the active population, the community at
large ? How should the additional burden be
shared ? Will everybody pay for himself only or
shall all incomes be taxed, and still according to a
progressive scale ? So many questions, of a
frightful difficulty, which the political institutions will
have to answer without delay.
Our pension scheme is however of a different
nature. Each participant is building by his own
means during his active life the capital resources
which are necessary to finance his pension and
there is no institutional solidarity between the
active population and the retirees, at least that
kind of solidarity which is called inter-generations.
The only element of solidarity included in our
scheme is between the retirees themselves. It
consists of merging together the assets
accumulated by each of them into a mass out of
which monthly pensions are paid, so that
everyone, whatever the duration of his life, is sure
to receive a pension until his death.
Does this mean that our pension scheme is
immune from the various difficulties which pay-asyou-go
schemes are facing presently. Certainly
not: the community made up of the participants
and beneficiaries of the UN Pension Fund is
subject to the same demographic problems as
any other community, i.e. increased longevity and
changing relationship between the number of
participants and that of beneficiaries, and it reacts
to the challenges resulting from these changes in
the same way as pay-as-you-go schemes, i.e. by
increasing the contributions, lengthening the
active period of life or reducing the benefits, at
least for new entrants.
What makes our scheme different is the vigilance
paid by its managing body, the UN Joint Staff
Pension Board, to the financial equilibrium of the
institution. So vigilantly managed, the Fund has
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