Professor Francis Gurry

Overview

Francis Gurry is Director-General, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Until recently he was Assistant Director-General and Legal Counsel of WIPO in Geneva where he was responsible for WIPO's activities in the field of electronic commerce and the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center, as well as for international legal and constitutional questions and the Organization's relations with industry.

He is a distinguished alumnus of the Melbourne Law School, holding an LLB and LLM from the University of Melbourne and a PhD from the University of Cambridge. He is a Vice President of the International Federation of Commercial Arbitration Institutions (IFCAI).

Before joining WIPO in 1985, he practised as a solicitor in Melbourne and Sydney. He is the author of a textbook on the law of trade secrets and confidential information, Breach of Confidence, (Oxford University Press 1984, and re-printed 1990), and co-author, with Frederick Abbott and Thomas Cottier, of The International Intellectual Property System: Commentary and Materials (Kluwer 1999).

Languages spoken: English, French