International

Following the return of in-person travel, 2023 saw members of the International Liaison Committee (ILC) continue their work to grow the reputation of UK Chartered Patent Attorneys worldwide by attending several conferences held by overseas associations and receiving several visits from international delegations.

The committee also maintained its programme of virtual meetings. In January a joint webinar was hosted with the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) on patentability tips and tricks at the US Patent and Trademark Office and European Patent Office (EPO). Mike Jennings from CIPA discussed the challenging and ever-changing landscape of computer-implemented inventions and the latest thinking for patenting this at the EPO. AIPLA’s Ryan Pool focused on legal doctrines in the US.

In March members of the ILC hosted a joint webinar ‘IP Services in the UK’ in association with the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) and the Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys (CITMA) to introduce UK IP services to an audience of Chinese IP attorneys. President Daniel Chew and Handong Ran both gave presentations in Mandarin on the UK’s ongoing involvement with the Unified Patent Court (UPC) to an audience of 115 attendees.

CIPA welcomed delegates from the Korea Patent Attorneys Association (KPAA) in both May and September. In May, KPAA president Jangwon Hong visited the UK with a journalist as part of their campaign to gain domestic litigation rights. ILC Chair Tony Rollins and other committee members accompanied them while they attended a Case Management Conference before Judge Hacon in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court and the Optis vs. Apple hearing in the Court of Appeal. The visit in September began with a roundtable discussion held in the CIPA offices. The afternoon saw the first in-person ILC seminar since the pandemic with presentations on the protection of inventions and patentability of AI in Korea.

In May, Daniel attended the American Intellectual Property Lawyers Association (AIPLA) Spring Meeting in Seattle, where he joined a meeting with the AIPLA Exco. He spoke on the protection of UK membership of the European Patent Convention in the accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), provided updates on both Substantive Patent Law Harmonisation and an EPO symposium on patent harmonisation and promoted the work of UK patent attorneys at the Unified Patent Court (UPC).

In August, ILC member Howard Read attended the Brazilian Intellectual Property Association Conference in Rio de Janeiro, where he presented on the UPC panel. CIPA were the only non-Latin American nation to participate and Howard was one of just three European patent attorneys present. After the conference there was a CIPA reception held at the consul general residence.

In September, Tony Rollins and other ILC members attended the US Intellectual Property Owners Association Annual Meeting in Boston. We hosted a drinks reception after the meeting at which ILC members spoke to more than 100 delegates about UK rights of representation at the UPC.

In October, Daniel attended the AIPLA Annual Meeting in Maryland with Vicki Salmon, Chair of the Internal Governance Committee and CIPA Fellow Gemma Robin where they met with the AIPLA Board of Directors to promote the UK profession and discuss issues of mutual interest. The meeting concluded with a call for continued collaboration and information sharing.

In November, Daniel attended the Asian Patent Attorneys Association’s 20^th General Assembly, in Singapore, supported by several ILC members and Working Group leads. There were informal meetings with sister institutes from Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan and Singapore.

In December, the ILC hosted a webinar in association with the Malaysian Bar Council presenting the latest IP cases in the UK to a Malaysian audience. The speakers were Jon Markham of Beck Greener, for CIPA, and Ben Micklewright, Deputy Director in the Intellectual Property Office’s Policy, and Legal Division. There were 191 attendees in total, including Hon. Judicial Commissioner Azlan Bin Sulaiman, the IP Judge at the Kuala Lumpur Court Complex.