Richard Owens is Director of the Copyright E-Commerce, Technology and Management Division at the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. His responsibilities include work on developing and maintaining international standards for protection of creators, performers, broadcasters and other rights owners in the digital environment.

Before returning to WIPO in October 2002, Mr. Owens was International IPR Adviser for British Music Rights (BMR) in London, the lobbying and public affairs voice of UK composers, songwriters and music publishers. While in London he contributed to UK implementation of the EC Copyright and E-Commerce Directives. He was also an active participant in Rights Watch (www.rightswatch.com), the EC-funded project aimed at developing self-regulatory notice-and-takedown procedures for the European Union under the E-Commerce Directive.

At WIPO from 1991 to 2000, Mr. Owens' posts included Director of the Developing Countries (Copyright Law) Division, advising developing countries on implementation of the WTO/TRIPS Agreement and the 1996 WIPO Internet Treaties. He also headed the WIPO Global Intellectual Property Issues Division from its creation, spearheading WIPO's exploratory work towards promoting use of the IPR system to protect traditional knowledge and folklore. Before coming to WIPO, Mr. Owens was an attorney at the US Patent and Trademark Office in Washington, working on bilateral and multilateral issues in the copyright and related rights sectors.

A U.S. national, Mr. Owens was educated at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and took his law degree from the George Washington University's National Law Center in Washington, D.C