Professor Robert Picard selected for an expert panel by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

Robert G. Picard has been selected by the World Intellectual Property Organization (a Geneva-based United Nations body), to be part of an expert panel developing guidelines for assessing the economic, social and cultural impact of copyright industries.

The process is intended to bring greater objectivity to the development of policy in the area of copyright and the creative industries, to broaden perspective on both positive and negative effects of copyright to achieving objectives of national development, and to enable countries to monitor and assess the potential opportunities and challenges of national copyright systems.

The effort is designed to develop an integrated multidisciplinary framework to assess the impact of national copyright systems on industries in which copyright protections exist. The guidelines are designed to assist countries in tracking changes resulting from specific policy interventions of the national copyright system and to help them identify benefits and costs related to the operation of the copyright system in order to help making adjustments to policies and practices.

Robert G. Picard previously worked with WIPO in creating standards for measuring economic contributions of copyright to national economies.