funds support domestic meetings of U.S. project working groups, travel by U.S. representatives to project conferences and field excursions abroad, and general clerical and technical assistance to working group chairman. As a result, 19 U.S. working groups, each consisting of 3 or more scientists, are participating in the program.

IGCP project activities in the United States are guided and coordinated by the U.S. National Committee for IGCP (USNC/IGCP), organized in 1974 as a subcommittee of the U.S. National Committee on Geology. The USNC/IGCP, chaired by Bruce D. Marsh (Johns Hopkins University), screens proposals from U.S. scientists for new projects before their submission to the IGCP Board.

MAN AND THE BIOSPHERE PROGRAM

During 1989 U.S. scientists, as individuals and as members of the U.S. Man and the Biosphere Program (U.S. MAB), continued to collaborate with the UNESCO MAB Program and with other programs and agencies of the United Nations.

Funds which the Department of State contributed through the voluntary contributions section of the Foreign Assistance Act, and through the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, were granted to U.S. MAB to provide support for specific international projects of U.S. scientists which would normally have been funded by UNESCO. Several of these projects were also carried out in conjunction with scientists supported directly by UNESCO and other UN bodies.

Using such funds, U.S. MAB scientists organized a workshop in the Caribbean on land-based sources of marine pollution. The UN Environment Program also contributed funds to support this workshop which resulted in specific preparations and a call for an international protocol to establish marine effluent controls and water quality standards in the wider Caribbean region.

U.S. MAB scientists also collaborated in the production of a new UNESCO book series on international environmental issues published in collaboration with the Parthenon Press. Nine of the first 12 volumes which are currently in process were written by U.S. MAB scientists on topics ranging from tropical forests to urban pollution and fresh-water lake eutrophication. In addition, the Chair of the U.S. MAB directorate on Temperate Ecosystems collaborated with scientists in the UNESCO MAB Secretariat during 1989, and they produced a manuscript for the special issues series of the UNESCO MAB Digest on the "Role of Land/Inland Water Ecotones in Landscape Management and Restoration: a Proposal for Collaborative Research."

Two scientists from the U.S. MAB program received invitations and funding from UNESCO to participate in an international conference held in Paris on future research strategies for tropical forests.

UNESCO MAB provided funds to support an international conference in San Francisco on the application of the biosphere reserve concept to marine areas. Federal agencies which support U.S. MAB also provided direct supportive funding for this conference. UNESCO and U.S. MAB collaborated to provide funds for participants at a series of MAB workshops at the annual summer meetings of the American Institute of Biological Sciences in Toronto, Canada.

UNESCO and U.S. MAB provided funds to support the MAB Biological Diversity Program headquartered at the Smithsonian Institution. A collaborative research project of a U.S. scientist to preserve tropical forests in Madagascar received joint funding from UNESCO MAB and the U.S. MAB Program.

WORLD HERITAGE COMMITTEE

The United States initiated the development of the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage and was the first nation to ratify it in December 1973.

In October 1987 the United States was elected, by more votes than any other country, to a 6-year term on the World Heritage Committee, the 21-member governing body of the Convention. The Convention has over 100 signatories and is the largest international body working to protect mankind's natural and cultural heritage.

The World Heritage List is a compendium of natural areas and cultural sites, now 323 in number, considered to have universal significance for all mankind. Seventeen U.S. sites, including the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone National Park and the Statue of Liberty are on the World Heritage List.

The United States made a voluntary contribution to the World Heritage Fund of $220,000 in both 1988 and 1989. The Convention and its Fund, which assist needy countries, have enabled many nations to preserve their unique natural and cultural legacies. Measures taken by member countries to protect natural sites often contribute to the preservation of endangered species and biological diversity.

U.S. NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR UNESCO

The U.S. National Commission for UNESCO has been inactive since December 1985 when the membership of all its Commissioners expired.

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) was established by a convention signed at Stockholm in 1967, which entered into force on April 26,

1970. The United States is a party to the convention, which has 126 member states. WIPO is the principal worldwide organization responsible for promoting the protection of intellectual property, which comprises two elements: copyrights (mainly literary and artistic works) and industrial property (mainly patents on inventions, trademarks and industrial designs). WIPO is also responsible for the administration of some 15 intergovernmental "Unions," each founded on a multilateral treaty. The two principal treaties are the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, which has 100 parties, and the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, to which 84 nations have adhered. The United States has been a party to the former convention since 1887. On March 1, 1989, the United States adhered to the Berne Convention.

ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION

The Paris and Berne Conventions earlier had provided for an international bureau to serve as Secretariat for each of the respective unions of the member states of these agreements. These were united in 1893 under the name of the United International Bureaux for the Protection of Intellectual Property (BIRPI). Although BIRPI still has a legal existence for states that are members of one of the Unions but not of WIPO, in practice it has been supplanted by the International Bureau established by the Stockholm Convention to be the Secretariat of WIPO. WIPO became a specialized agency of the United Nations in 1974.

The International Bureau operates under the direction of WIPO member states through a General Assembly and a conference which meet in ordinary session every second calendar year. The principal administrative organs of the Paris and Berne Unions are the assemblies of each union, consisting of all the member states. The Paris and Berne Unions elect executive committees from among their member states, and the joint membership of these two committees constitutes WIPO's Coordination Committee. It meets annually and is entrusted with the normal tasks of such a governing body, especially the implementation of WIPO's biennial program and budget. As a member of the Paris Union Executive Committee, the United States continued as a member of the WIPO Coordination Committee through 1989.

During the year, the United States was also a member of the WIPO General Assembly and the following committees: the Budget Committee, the Permanent Committee for Development Cooperation Related to Copyrights and Neighboring Rights, the Permanent Committee on Industrial Property Information, and the Permanent Committee for Development Cooperation Related to Industrial Property.

One of two basic objectives of WIPO is to promote the protection of intellectual property on a worldwide basis. In support of this objective, WIPO encourages the conclusion of new international treaties and the harmonization

of national laws; it gives legal-technical assistance to developing countries; it assembles and disseminates information on intellectual property; it maintains international registration services in the fields of trademarks, industrial designs, and appellations of origin; and it performs the administrative tasks for an international patent filing arrangement.

The second basic objective of WIPO is to ensure administrative cooperation among the unions. Centralizing the administration of the various unions in the International Bureau helps ensure economy both for the member states and for the private sector concerned with intellectual property.

Member nations contribute to six of the WIPO unions, known as the "Program Unions." WIPO's 1990-1991 biennial gross assessed budget for the Program Unions is 49,976,000 Swiss Francs. It represents a slight increase over the 1986-1987 budget. The United States is assessed approximately 3.9 percent of total assessments.

TECHNICAL ACTIVITIES

The Permanent Committee for Patent Information, established in 1977, was renamed the Permanent Committee for Industrial Property Information. It continues to coordinate all technical activities in regard to international patent classification and cooperation.

ASSISTANCE TO DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Activities of WIPO in the field of development cooperation with respect to developing countries continued in 1989 under the direction of two committees composed of developed and developing countries, the WIPO Permanent Committee for Development Cooperation Related to Copyrights and Neighboring Rights and the WIPO Permanent Committee for Development Cooperation Related to Industrial Property. The United States participates in both of these committees and supports most of their activities, which are numerous and varied.

During 1989 WIPO continued to provide traineeships to officials from developing countries in the fields of industrial property and copyright. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office participated by providing training to a number of developing country nationals in the industrial property field, as did the U.S. Copyright Office in the copyright field.

REVISION OF THE PARIS CONVENTION

The United States continued its active participation in the revision of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, the most important multilateral treaty in this field. Four sessions of a diplomatic conference, held from 1980 to 1984, failed to resolve questions concerning a voting procedure for

adoption of a revision (the United States prefers unanimous consent), issues relating to sanctions for not working a patent in a given country and trademark issues concerning the use of geographical names to identify products. The Assembly of the Paris Union decided that consultations aimed at improving the prospects for positive results should precede a fifth session of the diplomatic conference. Consultative meetings were held in June 1985, January, May and September 1987 and September 1988. No conclusions were reached regarding the convening of a fifth session of the diplomatic conference.

PATENT COOPERATION TREATY

A total of 41 countries have ratified or adhered to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). Under the PCT, U.S. citizens and residents may file an international patent application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Washington. The effect of the international application is the same as if national applications had been concurrently filed with national patent offices (including the European Patent Office) of those countries party to the PCT which the applicant designates. The international application is then subjected to a search of prior art by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and the applicant then decides, on the basis of the international search report, whether it is worthwhile to pursue applications in the various countries designated. National procedures in such countries are delayed until 20 months after the priority date, unless the applicant asks for an earlier start. National procedures may be delayed until 30 months after the priority date if the applicant requests an examination in addition to a search. Since July 1987, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has also undertaken an international preliminary examination if the applicant requests it.

BRUSSELS SATELLITE CONVENTION

On March 7, 1985, the United States became a party to the Convention Relating to the Distribution of Program-Carrying Signals Transmitted by Satellite (Brussels Satellite Convention). This convention obliges each contracting state to take adequate and effective measures to prevent the unauthorized distribution on or from its territory of any program-carrying signal transmitted by a nondirect broadcast satellite. While only 12 countries are party to the convention, they include the predominant users of international satellite communications facilities. It is a most important agreement with respect to piracy of satellite television signals. The United States is encouraging other countries to join the Brussels Convention.

ADHERENCE TO BERNE CONVENTION

On March 1, 1989, the United States became a member of the Berne Convention. This convention is the oldest multilateral copyright agreement in existence and has the highest recognized standard of copyright protection of all the copyright treaties. By joining the Berne Convention, the United