Global Intellectual Property Agency's Singaporean Head Eyes Second Term

Singaporean Daren Tang, 53, who led the World Intellectual Property Organisation (Wipo) to the conclusion of a historic multilateral treaty that helps to protect traditional knowledge and cultural expressions, is aiming for a second six-year term in office.

- Tham Yuen-C

The director-general of the global intellectual property (IP) and patents office was nominated by the Singapore Government for another term that will run from October 2026 to September 2032, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Law said in a joint statement on July 24.

Under his leadership, the organisation was able to conclude two multilateral treaties for the first time in more than a decade, an "unprecedented achievement", said Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan in his nomination letter to the Wipo Coordination Committee.

The Wipo Treaty on IP, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge, adopted in 2024, makes it mandatory for patent applicants to disclose the origin country of genetic resources, such as from medicinal plants, as well as the indigenous communities that provided the traditional knowledge an invention drew on.

It was hailed as ground-breaking in linking IP and traditional knowledge, which has typically been hard to protect, and has been viewed as a step forward in combating biopiracy, the commercial exploitation of biological resources without compensating communities and countries where the resources are from.