Intellectual Property

Chair

Vice-Chairs

Encompassing patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and industrial designs, Intellectual Property is a rapidly expanding area of law in the context of a technologically advancing world economy. With the large number of innovative companies doing business in the Asia-Pacific region, a thorough understanding of intellectual property law is indispensable to many lawyers in the region.

The objectives of the Intellectual Property Committee are to share and exchange ideas or information amongst the practitioners of Intellectual Property Law, to apply and enforce such laws, to participate in meetings and conferences held by the Association to achieve the above objectives, and to acquaint members of the same profession with each other.


2010 IPBA SINGAPORE ANNUAL CONFERENCE

Title: Clean Tech – The Implications of New Technology in a Global Crisis.

The development and use of clean technology is widely acknowledged as a priority in the battle to manage “climate change”, in both a physical and economic sense. This issue will require inventors, companies, and governments to work together though the interests of these parties are not always in harmony. Companies want to pursue the development and adoption of clean technology as good business. Governments want to support the development of clean technology with stimulus packages and investment incentives, yet business competitors may view these measures as unfair subsidization.

Other governments and NGO’s want the intellectual property protections of clean technology innovators held in abeyance or modified to enable clean technology to be deployed for the benefit of all to address the pressing crisis of climate change.

The Technology and Communications, Intellectual Property, and International Trade Committees will team up to address the important legal issues surrounding the clean tech industry, including the creation, protection and commercialization of that technology through patents or other intellectual property rights; regulatory approvals and compliance; supply chain issues; technology acquisition and licensing; and the governing international trade and investment regimes regulating government intellectual property protection and incentive programs such as the WTO’s Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (TRIPS) and the Subsidies and Countervailing Measures Agreement (SCM).


2009 IPBA MANILA ANNUAL CONFERENCE UPDATE

In this digitalized era, many cross-border issues arise with respect to Intellectual Property rights, especially infringement. Therefore, the program “Issues in Intellectual Property Enforcement and Infringement in the Digitalized Era” sponsored by the Intellectual Property Committee at the recent Manila conference focused exactly on this issue. We had the honour of having three prominent and engaging speakers discuss the issues arising from protection and enforcement of such rights in the following presentations:
 

1. “Internet keywords: use as trademarks? A European perspective” by Ms. Alexandra Neri, Herbert Smith LLP;
2. “Copyright Developments: Secondary Liability and the ‘Making Available’ for Further Distribution” by Mr. J.T. Westermeier; and
3. “The Economic and Social Importance of Digital Information Networks as a Means of Development and Commerce” by Mr. Vincente B. Amador.