Singaporean Defeats Chinese Candidate to Head UN Patent Office

Singaporean Defeats Chinese Candidate to Head UN Patent Office
The headquarter of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is pictured in Geneva, Switzerland, on March 3, 2020. Denis Balibouse/Reuters
|Updated:

GENEVA—A Singaporean beat a Chinese candidate in the race to lead the world patent office, heading off Beijing’s bid for a fifth UN leadership role.

Daren Tang defeated fellow legal expert Wang Binying in a closed-door vote on Mar. 4 by dozens of countries to become director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which shapes global rules for intellectual property.