After two years of online Congresses in 2020 and 2021, AIPPI finally returned to in person meetings and AIPPI Congress 2022 was held in San Francisco during September 10-14, 2022. As a Bureau member of AIPPI, Lena Shen, Senior Partner of Dakun IP, attended the Congress and was re-elected at the EXCO Bureau member of AIPPI, being re-appointed as Assistant General Reporter.
AIPPI, founded in 1897, is an international non-profit association dedicated to the development and improvement of laws for the protection of intellectual property. It has the headquarter in Switzerland with about 8000 members worldwide from 131 countries. AIPPI Bureau is its management body including 16 members. Lena Shen is the only Bureau member from China.
An important part of the AIPPI Congress is to debate and adopt AIPPI resolutions on different forward-looking topics in IP. The AIPPI resolution process is a process to seek for harmonization while reserving differences in the views and perspectives of various jurisdictions through studying and discussing about the responses from the national and regional groups to the questionnaire on each topic. The AIPPI Congress San Francisco successfully passed four Study Question resolutions and one Standing Committee resolution, the topics of which are: Patentability of Diagnostic Methods (SQ280), Trade Marks and the Internet and Social Media (SQ281), Moral Rights (SQ282), Protection of Trade Secrets during Civil Proceedings (SQ283), and Privileges Relating to Settlement Negotiations and Compromise Offers (SC ADR resolution). Among them, Lena Shen took charge of the SQ281 trademark resolution: Trade Marks and the Internet and Social Media. These resolutions will be sent to the World Intellectual Property Organization, the World Trade Organization, national intellectual property offices, courts and other organizations and institutions, so that they may be recognized by various organizations.
In addition to the debating and voting of AIPPI resolutions, there are also many other events during the Congress, including a dozen of high quality panel sessions, three lunch sessions and different social events.