IP Dragon Speaks on 7th Annual Asia-Pacific IP Forum 2010

September 1, 2010, Stan Abrams of China Hearsay fame, and I will speak on Social Media (such as Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, but also blogs) and intellectual property (especially trademark and copyright) issues, during the 7th Annual Asia-Pacific IP Forum 2010.

There is a lot to say about this subject. If you deem a related subject important or have a great example about this subject matter, please do not hesitate to tell me, so that I will use it in my presentation (ipdragon at gmail dot com).

Last year's event Asia-Pacific Forum was great and this year's event seems very promising. Organised by Managing Intellectual Property and chaired by IP Dragon's friends Peter Ollier, Asia editor of Managing Intellectual Property and Dan Cole, Group Publisher (Asia), Legal Media Group.

Hope to see you there. See the agenda of the two day seminar here.

Picture/Text Danny Friedmann

IP Dragon Gives Lunch Presentation At Baker & McKenzie

Yesterday I gave a lunch presentation at the Hong Kong office of Baker & McKenzie. The title of my presentation: 'Is China's Unique Patent Law Paving the Way to Innovation?' about the challenges of foreign innovators because of the changes in the Third Amendment to China's Patent Law 2008. I was delighted to find such interested audiences at Baker & McKenzie's Hong Kong office and via video conferencing also at Baker's Shanghai and Beijing's offices and get excellent input of Baker's IP experts.

I spoke about:

- PRC history of patent law

- 'How socialism slipped out of the patent law'

- Confidentiality review in case of foreign filings

- Disclosure of genetic resources

- "Absolute" novelty standard

- Conclusions

Professor Llewelyn's Book Launched: 'Invisible Gold in Asia: Creating Wealth Through Intellectual Property'

Professor Llewelyn's new book just came out: 'Invisible Gold in Asia: Creating Wealth Through Intellectual Property'. If IP is the invisible gold in Asia, then Professor David Llewelyn is the alchemist of intangible property.

Publisher Marshall Cavendish Business writes:

"World competition in the 21st century will revolve around competition for intellectual property rights (IPRs). But what are these rights that you can’t see – the Invisible Gold of today’s Knowledge Economy. What can you do with them and how can Asian businesses foster the innovation and creativity they protect? From the patents protecting Creative Technology’s MP3 player and Tata’s ‘Nano’ car to ‘Tsingtao’ and ‘Singha’ branded beer, IPRs protect this Invisible Gold. David Llewelyn challenges Asian businesses to build up their reserves of Invisible Gold and governments to build a culture that encourages and rewards innovation and creativity. Using Asian examples throughout, David Llewelyn explains what the rights are, answers the questions and sheds much-needed light on this crucial but little-understood part of doing business in the 21st century."

IP Dragon certainly concurs with the thesis of Professor Llewelyn's book and is definitely going to read this highly relevant book.

Vax Is Not Infringing Dyson's Design Right?

Damian Reece wrote for the Telegraph that Dyson lost its claim in the High Court that its design right was infringed by the Mach Zen of Vax, a Chinese manufacturer of vacuum cleaners, whose design looks very similar indeed. See picture: left Dyson, right Vax. Judge for yourself.

Read Mr Reece's article for the Telegraph here.

I have not read why Dyson lost the case and whether Dyson registered its design rights or not (UK has also unregistered design rights, since 1989, just like throughout the European Community since 2002). Many Chinese infringing companies have the ambition to be a player on the world market, therefore they can not only be sued in China but oftentimes at a court in one of the markets they are exporting to.