WIPO’s Arbitration and Mediation Center is to launch an office in Singapore in January next year.
The office, which will be located at Maxwell Chambers, is designed to make ADR services more accessible in the Asia-Pacific region.
WIPO and Singapore are also working together to set up the WIPO Mediation and Arbitration Scheme for Film Related Disputes, which will be developed by the WIPO Center and Singapore’s Media Development Authority.
The initiative was agreed by WIPO director general Francis Gurry and Singapore minister for law and second minister for home affairs K Shanmugam this week.
Since it was established in 1984, WIPO’s Center has received more than 80 requests for mediation and 110 requests for arbitration, and has handled nearly 16,000 UDRP domain name disputes.
Gurry will be taking part in Trading Ideas 2009, hosted by the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore, later this week.