WIPO: Membership and How a State Joins, Articles 5, 14, 15 and 16

In one line

Any State that belongs to one of the Unions may join WIPO, and so may a State that belongs to none, provided it belongs to the United Nations system or is invited.

In exam wording: Article 5 of the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization provides that membership is open to any State which is a member of any of the Unions, and to any other State satisfying one of four alternative conditions, Articles 14 and 15 governing the manner of becoming party and the entry into force of the Convention for a State, and Article 16 excluding reservations.

Article 5: who may become a member

Article 5(1): membership in the Organization shall be open to any State which is a member of any of the Unions as defined in Article 2(v).

Article 5(2): membership shall be equally open to any State not a member of any of the Unions, provided that:

(i) it is a member of the United Nations, of any of the Specialized Agencies brought into relationship with the United Nations, or of the International Atomic Energy Agency, or is a party to the Statute of the International Court of Justice, or

(ii) it is invited by the General Assembly of the Organization to become a party to this Convention.

Read the structure, because that is what the question tests. There are two routes and the second has two limbs. A Union member joins as of right. A non Union State joins if it satisfies a United Nations system criterion, or if the General Assembly invites it.

Only States may be members. There is no provision for an intergovernmental organisation to accede, which distinguishes WIPO from the World Trade Organization, whose Article XI admits separate customs territories and whose Article XII permits accession by them too. The European Union is a member of the WTO and is not a member of WIPO, though it is a party to several WIPO treaties.

Articles 14 and 15: the manner of becoming a party

Article 14(1): States referred to in Article 5 may become party to this Convention and member of the Organization by signature followed by deposit of an instrument of ratification, or deposit of an instrument of accession.

Article 14(2) deals with the position of a State that is a member of a Union: it may become party to the Convention only if it has previously ratified or acceded to at least the administrative and final clauses of the Stockholm Act of the Paris Convention or of the Berne Convention, or has simultaneously done so.

Why that condition exists. The whole point of the 1967 design was that the Unions and the Organization share machinery, and a Union member still bound only by an older Act would not have the Assembly that plugs into the Organization.