Type of site | Online Legal Database |
---|---|
Available in | Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish |
Owner | World Intellectual Property Organization |
URL | www |
Commercial | No |
Registration | No registration |
Users | 1.8 million in 2015[1] |
Launched | September 20, 2010[2] |
Current status | Online and developing |
WIPO Lex is an online global database launched in 2010,[2] which provides free public access to intellectual property laws, treaties and judicial decisions from around the world. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) maintains and develops the database.
The objective of WIPO Lex is to provide information concerning the protection of intellectual property of WIPO Member States in accordance with Article 4(vi) of the WIPO Convention, which states that WIPO "shall assemble and disseminate information concerning the protection of intellectual property, carry out and promote studies in this field, and publish the results of such studies."[3]
WIPO Lex contains IP legal information of UN Members, as well as World Trade Organization (WTO) Members pursuant to Article 2(4) of the Agreement between WIPO and WTO of December 22, 1995 and Article 63.2 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. WIPO Lex also covers international treaties related to intellectual property. In particular, the database includes all WIPO-administered treaties.[4][5]
In 2014 the database included legal acts of 196 States and cumulatively contained 13 thousand entries.[6] In 2022, the WIPO Lex Database contained 48,000 national, regional and international legal documents relating to intellectual property, with access in the six UN languages.[7]
The database is used as source of legal and reference information in universities and libraries all over the world.[8][9][10]