U.S. urges U.N. patent agency chief to consider quitting

By Robert Evans
October 1, 2007
Reuters
Original Source: http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUKL0190964620071001?pageNumber=2
GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States on Monday said the head of the United Nations' intellectual property and patent protection agency WIPO should either publicly answer allegations of dishonest conduct against him or resign.
The call was addressed to WIPO Director-General Kamil Idris by U.S. ambassador to the U.N.'s European headquarters in Geneva Warren Tichenor in a speech to the 184-nation agency's annual General Assembly.
To the Director-General we say: clearly and convincingly answer the allegations against you in open forum in this General Assembly before member states, or heed those calling for new leadership at WIPO, Tichenor declared.
The vital work ahead for this important organization demands of its top leadership a director-general that is above reproach and not surrounded with serious questions, allegations and evidence which seriously question his character, integrity and judgment, the U.S. envoy said.
Idris was not in the hall to hear the remarks, but officials of WIPO -- the World Intellectual Property organization -- said afterwards the agency stood by earlier statements that the accusations against him were groundless.
Tichenor's comments were the bluntest yet in public in the controversy surrounding Idris, a Sudanese lawyer, who was elected to head the agency in 1997 and was reappointed to a second six-year term in 2003.
WIPO, which in recent years has played an increasingly key role in administering global patent and trademark treaties as well as in protecting Internet addresses, or domain names, from abuse, is widely regarded as an economic success.
Unlike most other U.N. agencies which are supported by levies on members, it is largely self-financing, drawing its funding from charges it makes for the use of its services.   
In a detailed document issued before the General Assembly opened last week, the WIPO Secretariat rejected charges said by diplomats to be contained in a confidential U.N. auditors' report that Idris misled the agency about his age.
Diplomats say the report questions whether Idris could claim the 10 years of senior experience normally needed for the level of the post he took up when joining WIPO in 1982.
It says, according to the envoys, that he signed several documents giving his birth date as 1945 whereas in fact he was born in 1954. WIPO officials have said that this was an error that Idris later corrected of his own accord.
The officials say he did not profit from the mistake, while Tichenor said the report suggested that it helped him to get positions and benefits to which he was not entitled.
The agency's Secretariat statement, issued on September 21, says leaks about the contents of the report circulating widely in Geneva, were part of relentless efforts over three years to destabilize WIPO and harass Idris.