The 5th China IP Annual Forum & 2015 Annual Conference of In-house IP Managers in China, jointly organized by China IP Magazine and China Daily IPR Channel, was successfully held in Beijing Yulong International Hotel from January 9th to 10th 2015.

Themed with “New Environment, New Trend, New Strategy,” the 5th China IP Annual Forum lasted for two full days, with a training program on the second day. It has invited distinguished guests and speakers including government officials, scholars, in-house IP managers, lawyers, and had attracted approximately 400 IP practitioners.

The 5th China IP Annual Forum
At the opening ceremony, Tommy Zhang, Editor-in-Chief of China IP Magazine delivered welcome remarks. Chen Jinchuan, Vice Director at Beijing Intellectual Property Court; Li Mingde, Directotr at the Institute of Law of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS); Qu Sanqiang, Director of the Law School of Beijing Institute of Technology, Vice President of Beijing Intellectual Property Law Research Society, as well as Chen Xiaodong, Chairman of CAEFI Quality Brands Protection Committee, also spoke at the ceremony. Noticeably, it was the first time that the Beijing Intellectual Property Court officials and judges attended an IP meeting, since the establishment of the court on November 6th 2014.

In the section of China IP Management Trend, Zhang Xiaojin, Presiding Judge of the Second IP Tribunal, Beijing Intellectual Property Court, explained the propose for setting up IP courts in China, and took Beijing Intellectual Property Court as an example to compare the trial situation of IP cases before and after the establishment of the court. Du Changhui, Presiding Judge of Case Filing Division, Beijing Intellectual Property Court, gave detailed analyses on the cognizance and jurisdiction of Beijing Intellectual Property Court. Lin Peng, President of Beijing Zhigu Ruituo Technology Services Co., Ltd. and Chen Xiaoyan, Vice President of Sinofaith IP Group also gave interesting lectures.

In the first panel, Professor Qu Sanqiang acted as the host, guests including Li Mingde, Director of Intellectual Property Research Centre at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Zheng Shengli, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of IP Academy at Peking University; Li Shunde, Director of Law and IP Department at University of Chinese Academy of Sciences; and Yu Gang, Executive Partner at Beijing Kangxin Intellectual Property Agency Co., Ltd. talked on the topics of “Legal Determination of Unfair Competition” with frequent interaction and active atmosphere. Taking the typical cases in 2014 related to unfair competition for example, such as the “Battle between 3Q” in the Internet area, JDB v. Wanglaoji over the red can, the discussion closely focused on “legal determination of unfair competition,” “controversies involved in specific unfair competition cases,” “whether trade dress can become independent and identifiable commercial getups,” “whether the trademark and trade dress are distinctly different or inseparably interdependent,” and other hot topics. Each scholar and expert delivered shared his or her own views.

Qu Xiaoyang, IP Director at Siemens (China); Liu Xiaoqing, Director of Legal Affairs at Le Shi Internet Information & Technology Corp; Wang Ningling, Managing Partner at Finnegan Law Firm (Shanghai Office); Wang Lei, Senior Consultant of Legal Affairs at Sina Corp.; Wu Zheng, Chief Product Officer at Iptalent Consulting Co., LTD.; Zhang Zhongli, Minister of Intellectual Property Dept at Hisense Multimedia Group; Qiao Rongde, Partner at Beijing Lusheng Law Firm; Zhou Liguo, Director of Legal Affairs at Tencent; Pang Junliang, R & D Director at Baoding Dawei Software Development Corp.; Liu Dandan, Patent Attorney and IP Training Manager at Patsnap (Singapore) had shared their professional views on China’s IP management practices.

In the second panel, with Yuan Zhenfu, Deputy Director of Intellectual Property Institute of Shanghai University, Columnist of China IP Magazine as the moderator, IP Industry talents such as Shi Ran, IP Director of ZTE Corp (Beijing Office); Li Haiqing, Patent Operation Director of License Department at Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.; Pang Xue, IP & Legal Manager at Actions Semiconductor; Gao Chenhao, Patent Operation Director at ZHIGU Corp. joined with their unique views on the hot topic of “Intellectual Property Operations in China.” It is necessary for an enterprise to attach more important on the storage of its IP and IP protection and operation, in order to better improve its core competition.

Award Ceremony & Gala Dinner
In the part of Awarding & Gala Dinner, China IP Magazine announced the Awards of the Year for Outstanding IP Management Teams in China, Most Valuable IP Enterprises in China, Outstanding IP Litigation Teams in China, Outstanding In-house IP Managers in China and China IP Most Influential People. The atmosphere in this part was extremely active with applause breaking out from time to time, pushing this annual Forum to climax.

Training Program on Cutting-edge IP Cases
To enrich the content of this annual Forum and give more valuable returns to participants, China IP Magazine organized a full-day training program on the second day, inviting outstanding judges from Beijing Higher People’s Court and Beijing Intellectual Property Court to share their trial experience, and well-known lawyers to share the cutting-edge IP cases and their reflections by centering on the latest IP law trends and typical IP cases. Shi Bisheng, Judge of Beijing Higher People’s Court and columnist of China IP Magazine, gave a wonderful lecture on “Analysis on Administrative Cases of Patent Authorization and Verification and Patent Infringement Cases,” including three main topics: patent infringement, patent authorization and verification and the case analyses related with Article 5 (2) of Antiunfair Competition Law (well-known products, specific names, trade dress etc.). Shi had also shared several controversial cases with the participants. Rui Songyan, Judge at Beijing Intellectual Property Court, made a speech on “Judicial Review of Administrative Cases of Trademark Authorization and Verification” from four aspects of the basic information of trademark cases, legal ground, types of trademark cases and the arguments in the trademark cases to explain the challenges, problems and correspondent resolutions in the judicial process of administrative cases of trademark authorization and verification. Jiang Liwei, Judge at Beijing Intellectual Property Court had an indepth analysis on “Problems and Countermeasures in the Operation of IPR Act Preservation System” in three aspects of the concept of act preservation, problems existing in the current act preservation system as well as the countermeasures.