1 December 2012Copyright

Life and Seoul

Attendees at the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI) Congress in Seoul might have considered it timely that the conference was taking place in the Gangnam district of that city, given the extraordinary current popularity of Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style’, which has topped the pop charts around the world. Certainly no-one was going to forget about that song while in Korea.

AIPPI president Yoon Bae Kim kicked off proceedings on October 20 with a speech and a short version of the ‘Gangnam Style’ dance as he welcomed everyone to Korea and underlined the importance of international openness when it comes to IP.

Kim was joined on stage by organising committee head Seong-Ki Kim, WIPO’s Jim Pooley and Korean Prime Minister Hwang-Sik Kim, each of whom reiterated that sentiment, while Prime Minster Kim went further, trumpeting Korea’s new trademark law as an example of how Korea hopes to become “one of the best IP regimes in the world”.

On Sunday October 21 a couple of especially interesting events took place. First, a mock patent trial featuring a panel of illustrious judges from around the world considered an imaginary case in which issues of patent infringement, equivalence and standards-essential patents came to the fore.

The judges were Ki Young Kim of Seoul District Court, Peter Meier-Beck of the German Federal Court, Makiko Takabe from the IP High Court of Japan, Xia Luo of the Supreme People’s Court of China, and Randall Rader from the Federal Circuit Court of the US. On many issues, the judges seemed to agree on the case, but some important differences emerged, perhaps most notably the limitations to the doctrine of equivalence in the US, and the different attitudes towards granting injunctions in different jurisdictions.

If this was a good example of AIPPI looking outwards, widening its scope to include various jurisdictions across the world, another session covered important developments closer to home. Robin Rolfe, of Robin Rolfe Resources, gave a pointed appraisal of the way AIPPI is run, based on her Strategy Objectives Report, which she produced for AIPPI prior to the congress and which was reported in WIPR September/October.

While several of her recommendations might have been thought controversial, especially those that suggested streamlining the organisation, Rolfe’s presentation was very well received by the AIPPI executive committee.

Other panels on Sunday covered topics including the future of the international patents systems, especially in light of discussions about the proposed Unitary Patent in Europe.

On Monday there were several interesting panel discussions. Perhaps the best-attended was a discussion of plain packaging for tobacco (and potentially alcohol or fast food) products, which has proved a controversial and possibly unlawful proposal in Australia.

While it may not be immediately clear that plain packaging is a trademark issue, as Carla Michellotti, in-house counsel at Leo Burnett, pointed out, forcing companies to sell their products in plain, nonbranded packaging restricts their ability to use their trademarks.

She added that she was not convinced plain packaging would actually achieve what it was designed to do, because packaging is used only by existing smokers to distinguish their preferred product from other brands, while new smokers are less likely to care what brand they smoke.

A series of workshops focused on the pharmaceutical industry, including competition law disputes, stem cell issues and so-called ‘gene patents’, while further sessions on cloud computing and standards-essential patents proved informative. That evening, many law firms held receptions across Seoul, providing excellent chances for networking to complement the previous day’s cultural programme. The congress ended on October 23, with the AIPPI general assembly (which passed several amendments to the constitution) and another meeting of the executive committee, before the evening’s Gala Dinner brought things to a close.

Already registered?

Login to your account

To request a FREE 2-week trial subscription, please signup.
NOTE - this can take up to 48hrs to be approved.

Two Weeks Free Trial

For multi-user price options, or to check if your company has an existing subscription that we can add you to for FREE, please email Adrian Tapping at atapping@newtonmedia.co.uk