Geoffrey Gaultier, The History of AIPPI, in: AIPPI – 1897-1997 Centennial Edition: AIPPI and the Development of Industrial Property Protection 1897-1997 11–126 (Chur/Disentis: Condrau SA 1997).
Gaultier – The History of AIPPI
Background
The gradual harmonization of intellectual property law with the Berne and Paris Conventions was overseen by the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI), a non-profit non-government international organization formed in 1897 that mainly unites practitioners from the different fields of IPRs. Drawing from working groups, the Association provides input on the process of harmonization of intellectual property law, mainly within the WIPO. Today the organization has some 9,000 members from all over the world. Headquartered in Zurich, it is the largest professional organization in the field (https://aippi.org/).
Switzerland played a particular role in the resurrection of the shattered AIPPI organization after both World War I and II. Ever since, the Swiss have played an important role in the organization, including Secretaries-General Eugen Blum, Rudolf Blum, Martin Johannes Lutz, Vincenzo M. Pedrazzini, Lorenza Ferrari Hofer and Arno Hold, a former WTI student and staff member who was appointed Executive Director in 2019 and heads the General Secretariat located in Zurich. Remarkably, the General Secretariat of AIPPI located in Zurich has been led ever by Swiss nationals since 1924, who have brought both organizational talent and Swiss legal culture to the table. Intellectual property is the field where Swiss professionals have perhaps contributed most to the development of international law since the AIPPI’s first resurrection in 1924. The country has a considerable stake in the structuring of, as stated at the outset, what perhaps forms the most advanced area of globalized law today.
Summary
The author describes the history of AIPPI in four stages. Founded in 1897 in Brussels, the Association developed and grew mainly with a European focus until World War I, when activities declined. There followed a second phase after its rebirth in 1924, activities being conducted up until 1939. The third phase started with the AIPPI’s second rebirth in 1946 after World War II. It lasted until 1958 with the advent of European Community law and the gradual evolution of globalization. This phase has put a lasting focus on goals of unification of the law going beyond harmonization. Swiss members of the Association played a crucial role in the process of post-war reconstruction of the AIPPI. Ernest Roethlisberger, then-director of the Berne-based BIRPI, induced the process which was taken up by the Swiss group led by Eugen Blum by drafting a new charter for the organization which was adopted at the 1927 Geneva Congress. Major and successful efforts were made to develop the organization, which attracted more than 2,000 members, as compared to 600 members before World War I. Congresses were held in London in 1932, in Berlin in 1936 and in Prague in 1938. World War II brought the AIPPI again to a halt. Eugen Blum, however, was again instrumental in resurrecting the organization, which held its first post-war Congress in he Hague in 1947, followed by Paris in 1950. His son Rudolf Blum succeeded him as Secretary General in 1961. He greatly supported the evolution of the organization on into the age of European Law and the process of globalization. New working methods were developed in preparing for the Congresses of Brussels in 1954 and Washington in 1956 (for the first time outside of Europe), and for subsequent international meetings. It was largely due to the stewardship of Rudolf Blum that the AIPPI had grown to 2,466 members and 19 groups when he retired in 1983. He was succeeded by Alfred Briner, who had been an assistant to Rudolf Blum since 1969. Martin J. Lutz followed in 1989 as Secretary General of the AIPPI (succeeded by Vincenco M Pedrazzini, who was Secretary General until 2006).