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Francis Curry to head WIPO as of October 1, 2008

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

Australia's Francis Gurry received the full vote of the general assembly of WIPO on Sept. 22, and will replace a scandal-plagued Kamal Idris on October 1, 2008 as WIPO director-general.

Coincidentally, some of the problems of Kamal Idris tied back to scandal-plagued Ohio University. As IPBiz noted earlier:

Idris' 1982 application [to WIPO] said he obtained a master's degree in international law from Ohio University in 1978. But Jessica Stark, spokeswoman for the university, told the AP Idris attended from Sept 12, 1977, to June 10, 1978, when he received a Master of Arts in African Studies.

Idris later issued a statement saying that he received a Master of Arts in International Affairs at Ohio University, omitting the reference to a law degree originally mentioned in the 1982 job application."

If WIPO can't perform "prior art" searches on its own employees, how are they going to get patents right? Of course, the Trump organization screwed up on the resume of E. J. Ridings, but even Donald Trump himself had a recollection of Joe Biden's law school plagiarism. Sometimes, people remember what they want to remember.

Of Curry and Idris, the Guardian noted:

The Australian patent lawyer beat rivals from Brazil, Pakistan and elswehere in the selection committee vote, which was formalised at a Monday general assembly meeting of WIPO's 184 member states. He will take over as WIPO director-general on Oct. 1.
Idris has denied any wrongdoing in the birth-date controversy, which stretches back to when he joined the United Nations agency 25 years ago and signed documents indicating he was nine years older than he actually was.

Separately, recall Allison Troutman, who was tossed off of Semester at Sea for "plagiarism" of wikipedia, was a student of Ohio University.

Full post as published by IPBiz on September 22, 2008 (boomark / email).