AIPPI World Congress Held in China Concludes with 2024 AIPPI Hangzhou Resolutions

The AIPPI World Congress is one of the most influential events of the international intellectual property (IP) community hosted by the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI) on a yearly basis, which brings together IP experts and representatives from around the globe to discuss key issues and challenges in the field.

This year, the event was held in Hangzhou, China on 19-22 October, the first time that the congress has ever been held in China since the establishment of the AIPPI 127 years ago. With 2,259 attendees from 92 countries and regions, it was also the largest AIPPI congress ever held outside of Europe, both in terms of total attendees and diversity of countries represented.

At the opening ceremony, Mr. Zhang Guoqing, vice premier of the State Council, pronounced President Xi Jinping's congratulatory letter and delivered a speech. AIPPI president Mr. Naoichi Okuyama also addressed the ceremony, and Mr. Daren Tang, director-general of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), sent a video message to the congress.

This year's AIPPI congress was themed "Balanced Protection of IP and Innovation Development", featuring a wide array of activities including around 100 panel sessions on topics of interest surrounding the theme, round table sessions on IP topics, a live court hearing, as well as networking opportunities including special-interest meetings such as women in AIPPI and young AIPPI member forums.

Upon the closing of the congress on 22 October and after four days of in-depth discussions on the draft resolutions of four study questions, the 2024 AIPPI Hangzhou Resolutions was approved at the AIPPI executive committee meeting. The resolutions, addressing the topics of "Harmonisation of disclosure requirements and consequences of non-compliance", "Conflicts between composite trademarks including non-distinctive elements", "Defence of parody defense in copyright", and "Unjustified allegations of infringement of IP rights" will be submitted to the WIPO, the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the legislative bodies, IP administrative agencies and judicial bodies of major countries and regions in the world, serving as important reference for relevant international organisations and governments to formulate IP laws and policies.