Árpád Bogsch (February 24, 1919 – September 19, 2004) was a

Hungarian-American Hungarian Americans ( Hungarian: ''amerikai magyarok'') are Americans of Hungarian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau has estimated that there are approximately 1.396 million Americans of Hungarian descent as of 2018. The total number of people wit ...

international

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

. He was born in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

, and became an American citizen in 1959. From 1973 to 1997, he was Director General of

World Intellectual Property Organization The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO; french: link=no, Organisation mondiale de la propriété intellectuelle (OMPI)) is one of the list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, 15 specialized agencies of the United Nation ...

(WIPO). He was also Secretary General of the

International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants or UPOV (french: link=no, Union internationale pour la protection des obtentions végétales) is a treaty body (non-United Nations intergovernmental organization) with headquar ...

(UPOV). He died in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

Bogsch was featured in the 1988 Swiss documentary film ''A Szellem Tulajdona'' (''Property of the Intellect''), directed by Zoltán Bonta. There have been a number of tributes made in Bogsch's memory. The main building at WIPO headquarters in

is named the "Árpád Bogsch building" in his honor. The Hungarian Intellectual Property Office, in the country of Bogsch's birth, features a

bust Bust commonly refers to: * A woman's breasts * Bust (sculpture), of head and shoulders * An arrest Bust may also refer to: Places *Bust, Bas-Rhin, a city in France *Lashkargah, Afghanistan, known as Bust historically Media * ''Bust'' (magazine ...

of Bogsch by sculptor . The

International Federation of Inventors' Associations The International Federation of Inventors' Associations (IFIA) is a non-profit, nongovernmental organization founded in London under the supervision of the United Nations, on July 11, 1968, by inventor's associations of Denmark, Finland, Germany ...

in 2010 established the Árpád Bogsch Memory Medal, to be awarded to individuals who support invention and innovation in the same spirit as Bogsch.

Notable works

* A comprehensive annotation of the

Universal Copyright Convention The Universal Copyright Convention (UCC), adopted in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1952, is one of the two principal international conventions protecting copyright; the other is the Berne Convention. The UCC was developed by the United Nations Educati ...

References

1919 births 2004 deaths Hungarian emigrants to the United States World Intellectual Property Organization people American officials of the United Nations {{US-law-bio-stub