In January, 2016, Alliance of Global Intellectual Property Service (AGIPS), co-initiated by China Intellectual Property Magazine, Kangxin Partners, P.C., HENGDU Law Firm, Shanghai and Central Europe IP Promotion Center, Electronic IP Center of Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of P.R.C., SONODA & KOBAYASHI IP Law Firm and STLO Asia Ltd, is a professional organization in IP service industry, it aims to provide a global platform for IP service institutions on information exchange, experience sharing and business cooperation. The Secretariat, functioning as a serving agency, is based in China Intellectual Property Magazine.

Since Jan, 2016, the AGIPS has held 4 main events and activities, including the 2016 Launch of AGIPS, 2017 Annual Conference of Alliance of Global Intellectual Property Service, IP Protection Strategy and Practice of Enterprises in Europe and 2018 Annual Conference of AGIPS. Through the above activities, the AGIPS has provided an efficient platform for the members and applicants to actively develop academic and cultural communications.

On January 26-28, 2018, the Annual Meeting of Alliance of Global Intellectual Property Service (AGIPS) was successfully held in Beijing. The Annual Meeting of AGIPS this year lasting for three days was consisted of Reception Dinner (Jan 26th), Theme Forum (Jan 27th) and IP Communication Tour (Jan 28th).

Themed by "How to Effectively Manage Global IP Portfolios", 2018 Annual Meeting of AGIPS attracted more than 150 domestic and overseas elite persons of IP. The participants included AGIPS members, scholars, and representatives from governmental IP institutions, IP service agencies, enterprises etc. from China, USA, France, Germany, Japan, Britain, Holland, South Korea, Finland, Thailand, Vietnam, Spain, Latvia, Singapore, etc. Tomotaka Homma, Director of Intellectual Property Rights Department of JETRO Beijing, and Sun Yue, Secretary-General of Copyright Society of China, attended AGIPS and gave lectures. Sasee Uthai, Partner and Head of intellectual property department in STLO Asia; Yoshitaka Sonoda, Director of SONODA & KOBAYASHI IP Law Firm; Tracy Li, Patent Manager of Beijing Yestar IP Co., Ltd.; Chris Benson and Hsu Min Chung, Partners of HGF Limited; Wang Wenying, Secretary-General of CIETAC (China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission) Hong Kong Arbitration Center and Sylvain Hirsch, CEO of IP TWINs gave keynote lectures. Catherine Lee, Executive Secretary-General of AGIPS presided over this forum.

Tomotaka Homma stated in his lecture that his work included conveying the latest information on Japanese IP to China's governments and non-governmental organizations. Meanwhile, he also conveyed the suggestions of China's IP industry from Japanese governments and enterprises to China's governments and enterprises. He truly fell that China's IP system had been improving, and enterprises had paid more and more attention to the application of IP. In addition, China's government actively solicited opinions from domestic and overseas experts and enterprises and made great efforts so as to better improve the IP system.

Sun Yue pointed out in his lecture that Copyright Society of China and AGIPS have a lot in common in boosting the industrial development and promoting the social influence of copyright industry. As a professional media in China's copyright industry, Copyright Society of China is committed to providing governments, members and copyright industry with support and services. This society actively promotes communication, exchanges and cooperation of practitioners in the copyright industry through a series of training courses, seminars and other member activities. AGIPS is also an international industrial organization which includes domestic and overseas excellent IP service institutions. "We believe that in the future, Copyright Society of China and AGIPS will go ahead hand in hand, make contributions to China's and global intellectual property industry."

As the executive secretary of AGIPS, Catherine Lee issued AGIPS 2016-2017 Report and 2018-2019 Plan. The report indicated that 196 domestic and overseas IP service institutions actively applied for joining AGIPS after its establishment for two years. Currently, AGIPS has 6 initiate members (initiate members are also identified as council members), 2 council members (who are not initiate members), 30 regular members, and 35 associate members (being reviewed). In the coming two years, AGIPS plans to enlist 10 council members and 50 regular members. Between 2018 and 2019, AGIPS plans to hold at least 5 meetings and activities, including but not limited to 2018 Annual Meeting of AGIPS, 2019 Annual Meeting of AGIPS, 2018 IP Communication Tour (China), 2018 IP International Communication Tour (International), 2019 IP Communication Tour (International), etc.

 

In this AGIPS Annual Meeting, the representatives from 5 international organizations and institutions shared their professional interpretation on global IP portfolios.

At first, Sasee Uthai from Thailand gave her lecture on the theme of "Latest IP Update in Thailand & Southeast Asia". She especially pointed out that Thailand published a draft of Patent Law in May, 2017. On August 7, 2017, Thailand became the 99th member in the Madrid System. In addition, she explained the specific procedures of international trademark application and registration in Thailand and suggested that considering that the first-to-file principle is adopted in trademark registration in Southeast Asia, the local languages shall be used during trademark registration in Thailand, Lao, Myanmar and Cambodia.

Yoshitaka Sonoda from Japan stated his opinions on the theme of "Prospect of Inventions Created in China, Japan, USA or Europe". In his lecture, he especially illustrated the examination of invention and creation in different countries' IP authority institutions. According to the statistics, SONODA & KOBAYASHI IP Law Firm collected 2,435 application cases from China, Japan, Europe and USA, and traced their final actual examination results in State Intellectual Property Office of the P.R.C. (SIPO), Japan Patent Office (JPO), European Patent Office (EPO) and United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Through comparison, the global authorization rate in China and USA is higher than that in Japan and Europe. As regards the correlation of the examination results in different patent offices, based on SIPO, its correlation with EPO, JPO, USPTO is 69.5%, 76.7% and 75.8% respectively.

With the theme of "How to Improve Efficiency of IP Portfolio Planning in China", Tracy Li pointed out that enterprises shall follow three principles when formulating IP plans or strategies, including trying to promote their own competitiveness, determining technical advantages, reducing risks, and considering governmental laws and regulations. Meanwhile, as regards how enterprises enter China's market and successfully operate, Tracy Li stated that foreign enterprises shall actively know the competitive environment in China's market, know China's laws and regulations as well as measures or policies that China's government can provide, analyze the development trend of China's IP, and formulate relevant solutions, etc.

Britain: patent strategies in Europe 

Chris Benson and Hsu Min Chung from Britain gave lectures on the theme of "Patent Strategies in Europe". Chris Benson said that EPO had made efforts to shorten the authorization waiting time for patents applied for in Europe. If the applied patents involve environmental protection, it can be required to use the green channel of EPO. It can be applied more quickly and efficiently. Hsu Min Chung pointed out that if China's enterprises want to seek development in European market, or promote enterprise reliability to attract investment in the global market, it is very necessary to apply for patent in European market. In the single patent system in Europe, although EPO is responsible for patent application examination and authorization, the single patent can be effective in each signing European Union country once the decision of patent authorization is made, which greatly reduces the complexity and expenses.

Wang Wenying shared her professional opinions on the theme "How to Design the Best Solution for Disputes". She thought that negotiation and mediation shall be considered at first, and then litigation which is authoritative and traditional can be made. At last, she introduced the operationality of arbitration. Arbitration Ordinance executed on January 1, 2018 includes two new regulations. It is allowed to arbitrate in a dispute of IP. It means that all disputes of IP under the arbitration ordinance can be addressed by arbitration. When executing the judgment, Hong Kong courts will not execute the judgment on the pretext of violating Hong Kong's public policies as this judgment involves intellectual property disputes.

Sylvain Hirsch from France gave a lecture on the theme of the Consequences of GDPR (EU General Data Protection Regulation) on IPR in EU and China. He stressed that the General Data Protection Regulation promulgated in 1995 came into effect on May 25, 2017 in order to unify all European data protection laws, and it is effective in all member countries in Europe. People's Republic of China Network Security Law and General Data Protection Regulation have a lot in common. For example, these two laws define personal data, and they define it in a similar way. They can make data owners or network operators quickly evaluate whether their data is personal data. If they use personal data, the data protection provisions shall be considered.

Through experience sharing of the IP experts from the above countries, participants had further understanding of the plan and implementation of global IP strategies. The forum part of AGIPS Annual Meeting came to an end on January 27, but the activity of AGIPS this year just begins.

 

IP Communication Tour (China) 

On January 28, AGIPS members and global IP elite persons participate in the IP communication tour. This tour includes three stations. The first station is Capital Museum where they pondered over the history. The second station is Quanjude where they talked about Chinese delicacies. The third station is China World Trade Center Tower 3 where they viewed Beijing integrating Traditional and modern features, and shared global IP experiences. After entering the Capital Museum, they were attracted by collections in it. In particular, many foreign friends were very interested in China's ceramics, jades, pottery, etc. They stopped and watched the Jingdezhen Blue-andWhite Spring Pear-shaped Bottle with Two Mandarin Ducks Design, and they were amazed by the high level of ceramics made in Jingdezhen in the Yuan Dynasty. The global IP elites paid a visit to Hengdu Law Firm in China World Trade Center Tower 3. Hengdu shared the firm's current scale construction and operation ideas with participants. Hengdu said that one of employees' qualities they highlight is diligence because only diligence can boost everything's growth. The members of the IP Communication Tour agreed on it deeply. Although this communication tour lasted only one day, all participants deeply benefited from exchanges of traditional culture and professional quality.

Participants stood before the circular glass window on the 50th floor of China Beijing World Towers, viewed shining Beijing, seemingly expected beautiful prospects of the IP industry. Along with the sunset, the activity of AGIPS annual meeting came to an end. In the future, AGIPS will lead members to carry out more exchange activities, expand international market, and jointly boost the development of global IP industry.

(Translated by Dong Mingming)