First Asia-Pacific Intellectual Property Forum Debuts in Suzhou, China

The first Asia-Pacific Intellectual Property Forum, initiated and organised by Renmin University of China (RUC) with the support of Jiangsu Province IP Office, debuted in RUC's Suzhou campus in mid-November. The forum gathered over 200 participants, including legal experts, officials and corporate representatives from China, the US, Canada, Japan, Korea and Singapore.

The theme of this first forum was globalisation and localisation of patent systems. The opening remarks of the forum were given by distinguished guests including Professor Chen Yulu, president of RUC; Ms. Wang Binying, deputy director general at WIPO; Mr. Mark Guetlich, senior counsel at US Patent & Trademark Office; and Mr. Zhu Yu, director of Jiangsu Province IP Office. These were followed by keynote speeches and sub-forums addressing heated issues relevant to IP rights protection in the Asia-Pacific region.

A wide range of topics were explored during the forum, such as: limitations and exemption to exclusive rights; IP and international trade; IP system and socio-economic development; specialised courts for IP matters; punitive damages for IP infringement; IP rights enforcement on the internet; roles and functions of administrative agencies including patent, trademark or copyright offices, and International Trade Commission (ITC) in IP rights enforcement; and impact of Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) on IP systems of the region.

The forum is intended to be held on annual basis, and will be hosted alternately by RUC, University of California, Berkeley, University of Washington, Hokkaido University, Seoul National University, and National Taiwan University.