Proposal
for Amendment of the Statutes of the IFIA
New
texts in blue
color, deleting texts in red color.
ARTICLE 1
This Federation is
an unincorporated body without separate legal entity in any country established on
Name and Location:
The name of the
organization shall be the International Federation of Inventors’ Associations. The short name of the organization is the IFIA.
The Office of the
Federation will be situated at the address of the President.
There
are all IFIA published official matters on its web site.
ARTICLE 2
Objects of the Federation
The objects of the
Federation are:
ARTICLE 3
Members
Members of the Federation can be full members, candidate
members, collaborating members or corresponding
members.
Candidate members will not be voting members and
will normally be associations in the early stages of development.
Corresponding members will not be voting members
and will normally be individuals or associations which may or may not be
involved with innovation as such.
Exceptionally,
and only where no suitable association exists, personal members, acting in a
similar capacity, or temporarily acting pending formation of a national
association may be admitted for a period of one year at a time.
ARTICLE
4
Admission
to Membership
a)
Membership of the
Federation shall comprise its founder members and any new members admitted by
decision of the General Assembly.
The Executive Committee is authorized to admit new
members of all grades and to establish collaboration relationship with other
organizations or persons.
ARTICLE 5
Cessation
of Membership
ARTICLE 6
General
Assembly
The Federation shall be governed by a General Assembly operating through
an Executive Committee, the General Assembly being composed of a delegation of
not more than three delegates from each country one of whom shall be the head
delegate and not more than three observers, who shall not have the right to
speak in the Assembly, but an observer may exceptionally have the right to
speak by request if the Assembly agrees. Each country shall have one vote.
Candidate and corresponding members and the collaborating organizations may each send not more than two
observers to the General Assembly.
In cases exceptionally of more than one full member from a country each
of such members shall be entitled to appoint up to three delegates.
ARTICLE 7
Duties of General Assembly
The General Assembly is the supreme governing body of the Federation. Its
duties are:
ARTICLE 8
General
Assembly Voting
Decisions of the General Assembly shall be reached in the following ways:
Every full member shall have one vote. An absent
delegation may also send its vote for one or more questions on the Agenda.
All members may participate in the discussions but
only full members shall have the right to vote. Personal
members may participate in the discussions but shall have no right to vote.
A quorum of three members is necessary to hold a
meeting.
Unless
otherwise stated in the following section, a resolution is carried if the votes
given in favor of it are more than one half of the total number of possible
membership votes. When the number of votes in favor is exactly one half of the
total General Assembly votes, the presiding Chairman shall have a casting vote.
In
questions concerning:
a)
amendment of the Statutes;
b)
dissolution of the Federation;
c)
admission or expulsion of
members;
d)
transfer of the right to appoint
a head delegate from one member to another, when there are several members from
one country (Article 6);
e)
changing the amount of the
annual subscription;
The votes in favor must be at least two thirds
of the total possible General Assembly votes to carry the resolution. For items
(a) or (b) the resolution must be carried on two separate occasions (one of
which may be by circular letter) within a period of thirteen months.
Questions
which cannot without detriment be postponed to the next ordinary meeting, and
are not considered to justify the casts of an extraordinary meeting, may be
decided upon by Internet publishing on the IFIA
website by Secretariat and receiving the comments, opinions and votes in e-mail
format. . sending the question to all members delegates in writing together
with the comments and opinions sent by delegates to the Secretariat in advance.
In the accompanying letter, which shall be confirmed by a second letter within
one week, it shall be specifically stated that. The answers will be treated as a vote. In such a case a
decision shall be reached by a majority of votes received.
3.
Minutes
Minutes
shall be drawn up of all decisions made under subparagraphs (1) and (2) hereof
and drafts thereof shall be published on the IFIA web
site. sent to all
delegates. If no objection is raised within two weeks, they shall be signed by
the President, and the final Minutes then sent to all members and delegates. In
case of objection the Minutes shall be settled and signed at the next meeting.
ARTICLE
9
Meetings
The only compulsory meetings of the Federation
shall be meetings of the General Assembly which shall be as follows:
1.
The Biennial Assembly is to be
held in the month of May or such other time as
shall be decided by the General Assembly or the Executive Committee. A draft of
the Executive Committee's Report/President's Report and a preliminary agenda
shall be published on the IFIA web site. sent to the delegates three
months in advance. Motions from the delegates must be received by the
Secretariat not less than six weeks before the date of the meeting. These
motions, with the investigations and comments of the Executive
Committee/President thereon and with information of other questions and the
final agenda shall be circulated at least three weeks before the meeting.
Such agenda shall include
the election of the President, the Executive Committee /President's report, the
budget of the Federation and any proposed changes in the annual subscription.
2.
Extraordinary meetings shall be
summoned when the President deems it necessary or it is demanded in writing by
at least half of the delegates. The Executive Committee may submit a report to
the President proposing the need for an extraordinary meeting. The summons
shall include a preliminary agenda, and the delegates may within one month add
further items to the agenda.
The final agenda shall be
circulated by Internet to all delegates not
less than three weeks before the meeting. The place of the next meeting shall
be determined by the General Assembly or, failing the General Assembly, by the
President on the advice of the Executive Committee.
ARTICLE
10
Executive
Committee
ARTICLE 11
Honorary President, President and
Secretariat
c.
The Honorary
President shall be the Chairman of the General Assembly.
b.
report on the activities of
the Federation in each ordinary session, and he shall present in each such
session, together with the recommendations of the Executive Committee, the
draft Program and Budget;
ARTICLE 12
Language
The official language of the Federation shall be English. All discussions
in the General Assembly as well as minutes, documents and reports shall be made
in English, which also shall be used in all correspondence between the
Secretariat and the members.
ARTICLE 13
Congresses
When it is found
desirable and practically and economically feasible, the General Assembly may
arrange congresses in different countries for the discussion of questions of
common interest within the realms of the Federation, in order to promote
interest in such problems by the public and within the member associations of
the Federation.
The theme, program and organization of a congress shall be decided upon
by the General Assembly.
All members of the
member associations shall have the right to attend a congress. In addition, the
General Assembly may invite such persons or organizations as it may think fit.
A congress may pass
recommendations to the General Assembly but shall have no right to make
decisions on behalf of the Federation.
ARTICLE 14
Obligations of Member
Associations
It is the duty of
any member which is an association:
To send the
Secretariat without delay excerpts of minutes – in
their native language and in English translation – giving the names of
appointed head delegate and other delegates.
To send before the end of January each year a statement on the number of
members in the member association at 1st January.
To send
without delay the annual report of the member association in the native
language when it has been finally approved, and within
two months from said date a translation in English.
To pay all
subscriptions to the Federation which have been duly decided by General Assembly.
To keep the
Secretariat informed within its capacity of any events in its country in the
field of inventors and inventions likely to be of major interest.
ARTICLE 15
Regional Bodies
Member
Associations, who due to cognate languages, similarity of laws in the invention
field, geographical situation or for other reasons may derive advantage of
regional co-operation in simpler and less expensive forms, may form a regional
body. The Statutes of the Body shall be compatible with the Statutes of this
Federation, and shall be communicated to the Federation in the same way as
Statutes of member associations (see Article 14).
Such bodies shall have
no delegate in the General Assembly and no special rights within this
Federation.
ARTICLE 16
Finance
The mandate as
delegate to the General Assembly is honorary and delegates are not entitled to
remuneration or compensation from the Federation. Salaries and compensation for
the Honorary President, Executive Committee and
the Secretariat shall be decide by the General Assembly with due regard to the
means at its disposal.
The subscriptions
from the member associations shall be fixed in proportion to the number of
members in each member association at 1st January each year, and
subscription for individual members shall be determined by the Executive
Committee and submitted to the General Assembly for approval.
ARTICLE 17
Audit
The General Assembly shall cause accounts to be kept of the
sums of money received and expended by the Federation. Books of Account shall
be kept at the offices of the Federation, and shall be open to inspection by
members on any day during the usual working hours.
Once at least in every year the Accounts of the Federation
shall be examined and the correctness of the Balance Sheet ascertained by one
or more Auditors nominated by the Executive Committee General
Assembly.
ARTICLE 18
Amendment of the Statutes
These Statutes may be amended by a resolution carried by at
least two thirds of the total possible General Assembly votes on two separate
occasions (one of which may be by circular letter decision) within a period of
thirteen months (see Article 8(2)). Attention shall be specifically drawn to
the proposed amendment on the agenda.
ARTICLE 19
Dissolution of the Federation
A proposal for the
dissolution of the Federation shall be treated in the same way as amendments of
Statutes. The assets may not be divided among the members, but with the records
shall be made over to international organizations or institutions with approved
objectives in the field of invention to be used in accordance with conditions
laid down by the General Assembly (see Article 8 (1) (b)).
End of this document
Dr. András Vedres,
the President