The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is the agency of the United Nations tasked with administering the Patent Cooperation Treaty and the international patent filing and examination system associated therewith among a myriad of other objectives and functions that provide global assistance and that promote international coordination and cooperation.

As part of a mandate to promote development, WIPO builds human capacity via workshops, particularly in developing countries. One important WIPO workshop is their national/regional patent-drafting workshops, which are targeted toward satisfying a need for skilled local patent drafters to protect innovations generated at universities, research labs, and other institutions throughout the developing world. Training agents and attorneys to draft and file patent applications for these institutions facilitates the commercialization and, in some cases, export of their inventions.

Since 2007, I have worked for WIPO as a patent-drafting expert at these workshops, teaching patent-drafting techniques to aspiring agents, attorneys, and, in some cases, patent examiners throughout the developing world. This work is very rewarding and enhances my understanding and appreciation of patent law and policy and its role across our planet; and I am now gratified to see many of our alumni productively practicing as agents/attorneys to promote opportunities for development worldwide.