Last week's symposium of the International Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys (FICPI) here in Beijing deserves brief mention, and not just because one of my colleagues at DLA Piper attended the meeting.

The amount of interest in China among IP lawyers worldwide has deservedly increased over the past several years, but for the most part, this has included seminar topics and presentations at international conferences that take place in the U.S. and EU.

This is a good thing, but when you organize a meeting in London or New York, you cannot attract a lot of officials from SIPO or SAIC. They will all want to go, of course, but cannot always get someone to pay for it.

The interaction between IP professionals and government officials is extremely important, however. An official can read the newspaper and talk to local practitioners about current issues, but when an official meets 50 foreign practitioners in the same day that complain about the same enforcement problems, it gets your attention.

So congrats to FICPI and the other groups that are starting to hold regional meetings in China. This one included a bunch of people from SIPO and included discussions of amendments to the Patent Law.

Background info: FICPI; IPR in China.

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