Francis Gurry AO
Gurry in 2015
4th Director General of theWorld Intellectual Property Organization
In office 1 October 2008 – 30 September 2020
Preceded by	Kamil Idris
Succeeded by	Daren Tang
Personal details
Born	(1951-05-17)17 May 1951 (age 74) Australia
Children	3[citation needed]

Francis Gerard GurryAO (born 17 May 1951)^[1][2] is an Australian lawyer who served as the fourth director general of theWorld Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) from 2008 to 2020. During that time, he was also the secretary-general of theInternational Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV). Gurry also served as a deputy director general of WIPO from 2003 to 2008.^[3]

Gurry graduated in 1974 from theUniversity of Melbourne where he was resident atOrmond College with aBachelor of Laws and was admitted as abarrister andsolicitor of theSupreme Court of Victoria,Australia in 1975.^[2] He worked in Melbourne as an articled clerk and solicitor at Arthur Robinson & Co. (nowAllens)^[4] and earned aMaster of Laws degree from the University of Melbourne in 1976.^[5] From 1976 to 1979, Gurry was a research student at theFaculty of Law at theUniversity of Cambridge,United Kingdom, from which he was awarded aPhD^[5] in 1980 for his thesis dealing withbreach of confidence.^[2]

Before joining WIPO, Gurry was a senior lecturer in law at the University of Melbourne and, for one year, a solicitor atFreehills, Melbourne.^[6] He was also a visiting professor of law at theUniversity of Dijon,France.^[2]

Francis Gurry joined the World Intellectual Property Organization in 1985^[7] as a consultant and senior program officer in the Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific. Between 1988 and 1999, he held positions in different sectors of WIPO, including in the Industrial Property Law Section, the Office of the Director General, and the Legal Counsel Office.^[2] As Assistant Director General (from 1999-2003) and Deputy Director General (from 2003-2008), he was in charge of a variety of areas including thePatent Cooperation Treaty (PCT),patent law and policy, the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center (which he helped establish^[8]),traditional knowledge, traditional cultural expressions and genetic resources, and life sciences.^[2]

Francis Gurry was nominated as a candidate for the position of Director General of WIPO in February 2008^[9] and won the election on 13 May 2008.^[10] On 22 September 2008, he was appointed Director General by the WIPO General Assembly.^[11] His six-year term started on 1 October 2008 and ran to the end of September 2014.^[12] Following his nomination by the WIPO Coordination Committee,^[13] the WIPO General Assembly on 8 May 2014 appointed Gurry for a second 6-year term running through September 2020.^[14]

In 2016, WIPO initiated the High-Level Conference on Intellectual Property forBRI Countries.^[15]: 187 At the conference, Gurry encouraged countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative to use WIPO tools like its global IP services and databases and to join WIPO-administered IP treaties.^[15]: 187

Gurry has been accused of trying to retaliate against awhistleblower by authorizing security staff to enter senior staff offices and take personal items away for DNA testing; improperly awarding an IT procurement contract to an acquaintance; and breakingUnited Nations Security Council sanctions by sending IT equipment to North Korea and Iran.^[16] An investigation was conducted by theUN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) but its report has been shrouded in secrecy.^[17] 17 WIPO member states have asked the WIPO Coordination Committee to review the report so the issues can be resolved.^[18] On the DNA case, OIOS was unable to obtain cooperation from the Swiss authority (paragraph 66 of the OIOS Report). On the procurement case, OIOS found that Gurry "acted in non-compliance with WIPO's Procurement Instructions" (paragraph 203) and recommended the Chair of the WIPO General Assembly "consider taking appropriate action against Mr. Francis Gurry" (paragraph 206). Nevertheless, in October 2016, the WIPO Member States decided not to press for sanctions against Gurry.^[19]

• International Intellectual Property in an Integrated World Economy,Wolters Kluwer, New York, 2nd edition 2012 (withFrederick M. Abbott and Thomas Cottier),ISBN 978-0-7355-3958-7; 1st edition 2007,ISBN 978-0-7355-3958-7
• Breach of Confidence,Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1984,ISBN 0-19-825378-8; second editionGurry on Breach of Confidence – The Protection of Confidential Information by Tanya Aplin, Lionel Bently, Phillip Johnson, and Simon Malynicz,Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2012,ISBN 978-0199297665
• International Intellectual Property System: Commentary and Materials,Kluwer Law International, The Hague, 1999 (withFrederick M. Abbott and Thomas Cottier),ISBN 90-411-9322-7
• Confidential Information, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1981

• "The Cambrian Explosion",International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law, vol. 38, no. 3 (2007), pp. 255–258
• "Globalization, Intellectual Property and Development",Proceedings of the American Society of International Law, 2005
• "The Growing Complexity of International Policy in Intellectual Property",Science and Engineering Ethics, vol. 11, no. 1 (2005), pp. 13–20
• "The Dispute Resolution Services of the World Intellectual Property Organization",Journal of International Economic Law, vol. 2, no. 2 (1999), pp. 385–398
• "The Evolution of Technology and Markets and the Management of Intellectual Property Rights", inFrederick M. Abbott and David Gerber (eds.)Public Policy and Global Technology Integration, (Kluwer Law International, London, 1997),ISBN 90-411-0655-3
• "Arbitrage et propriété intellectuelle", in Institut de recherche en propriété intellectuelleArbitrage et propriété intellectuelle (Libraires Techniques, Paris, 1994),ISBN 2-7111-2383-9

• Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun: 2021^[20]
• Doctor of Laws (honoris causa),University of Melbourne, 2022^[21]
• Officer of the Order of Australia in the2023 Australia Day Honours^[22]

• Francis Gurry at WIPO
• Francis Gurry at the Melbourne Law School,University of Melbourne
• Francis Gurry at theMunich Intellectual Property Law Center (MIPLC)
• An Interview with WIPO Director General Francis Gurry (WIPO Magazine 5/2010)
• An Exclusive Interview with Francis Gurry, WIPO Director General (IPWatchdog, 4 May 2010)

• 1951 births
• Living people
• Officers of the Order of Australia
• World Intellectual Property Organization people
• Melbourne Law School alumni
• 20th-century Australian lawyers
• Australian officials of the United Nations
• Grand Cordons of the Order of the Rising Sun

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