The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) will convene its first diplomatic conference among its state members at the Diplomatic Conference on the Protection of Audiovisual Performances in Beijing on June 20.

Over 500 negotiators from WIPO's 185 member states, as well as industry leaders, actors and actresses, and other stakeholder organizations will meet in Beijing from June 20-26 to finalize discussions on an international treaty to update the intellectual property rights of entertainment media performers.

On June 17, Wang Yefei, Deputy Director-General of Beijing Municipal Bureau of Press and Publication, gave a brief introduction on the background and preparations of the conference.

According to Wang, the conference, the first of its kind held in China since 1949, will grant entertainment artists both economic and legal rights similar to those already recognized for music performers.

The new treaty would strengthen the position of performers in the audiovisual industry by providing a clearer international legal framework for their protection. Notably, for the first time, it would provide performers with protection in the digital environment. It is expected to strengthen the economic rights of film actors and actresses and other performers by enabling them to share proceeds with producers for revenues, Wang said.

Background:

The new treaty for film and video performers has undergone through several stages of amendment.

In 1961, the adoption of the Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations began to offer singers, musicians, dancers and actors limited international protection for their performances recorded in audiovisual productions.

In 1996, the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty modernized and updated these standards in respect to musical artists, particularly in relation to digital media, leaving a void in the international rights' system for audiovisual performers.

In 2000, significant progress was made with provisional agreement on 19 of the 20 articles under negotiation, but negotiators at the time did not agree on whether or how a treaty on performers' rights should deal with the transfer of rights from the performer to the producer, and suspended the diplomatic conference.

In June 2011, member states at the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights met in Geneva and agreed on compromise wording for the provision on the transfer of rights which made it sufficiently flexible to adapt to different national laws, thereby paving the way for the conclusion of a treaty.

In September 2011, WIPO's General Assembly decided to convene a diplomatic conference in 2012 to agree the proposed treaty on protection of audiovisual performances.