On Monday 20 June 2011, Lipu TIAN, Commissioner of the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), and President of the Chinese Group of AIPPI invited the President and the Secretary General of AIPPI, Mr. Yoon Bae Kim and Mr. Stephan Freischem, together with the Vice-Presidents and the Secretary of the Chinese Group of AIPPI, to discuss the latest developments in the field of IP. 

Mr. Tian reported on international collaboration initiatives, like the Patent Prosecution Highway and the Common Citation Document initiative, as well as national efforts to improve the Chinese IP system. China has started a successful initiative to improve the national system for IP enforcement. Currently, SIPO has approximately 5000 patent examiners, and there are about 6000 patent attorneys in private practice in China. Application filings were well over 1 million last year, with approximately 400,000 patent applications and similar numbers of utility models and design patents. A dramatic increase is expected in coming years. In order to process the expected increase in patent applications, SIPO plans to double the number of patent examiners in five years, and the number of patent attorneys is expected to increase as well. A training programme will be launched shortly with the goal of significantly improving the skills of the IP profession in China and to develop a deeper understanding of international IP protection systems. 

The Vice-Presidents and the Secretary of the Chinese National Group reported that the Chinese Group has invited AIPPI to host the AIPPI Forum and ExCo meeting in 2015 in Beijing. They further plan to set up a Seminar in April 2012 in conjunction with a meeting of the Bureau of AIPPI. Mr. Tian stated that SIPO strongly supports these initiatives. Mr. Kim and Mr. Freischem, on behalf of AIPPI, stated that AIPPI is impressed by the increased level of activity in the Chinese IP community and, in particular, within the Chinese Group of AIPPI. The AIPPI representatives offered AIPPI's resources for international IP training of the Chinese IP experts. 

The Forum organized by AIPPI's media partner, Managing IP, presented an excellent opportunity for introducing AIPPI to the IP community in China, especially to in-house counsels. The forum was very well attended with over 300 participants. High profile key note speakers, including 

• Lipu Tian, Commissioner of SIPO 
  
  
• Robert Stoll, Commissioner for Patents, USPTO 
  
  
• James Pooley, Deputy Director General, WIPO 
  
  
• Valentin Mir, Director International Affairs, EPO, 
  

opened different blocks of the Forum programme, which offered presentations on IP systems in different regions of the world. AIPPI was pleased to participate in a panel discussion of IP experts focussing on IP management strategies. 

The Secretary General of AIPPI travelled on to Shanghai to attend the China Intellectual Property Symposium 2011 organised by FICPI and the All China Patent Attorneys Association (ACPAA). The international key note speakers of the MIP event also participated in this event. A highlight of the program was the announcement by Commissioner Stoll that the US House of Representatives had passed a patent reform bill the night before. The new Act, which is likely to enter into force before the end of this year, changes the US from a first to invent to a first inventor to file system, and introduces a new post grant opposition proceeding in the US patent system. 

Discussions with officers of our sister association FICPI revealed the existence of a significant number of cooperation opportunities between FICPI and AIPPI. Both associations will offer a large variety of activities in the near future with a FICPI Forum in Seoul in December 2011, the FICPI Congress in Melbourne in April 2012, an AIPPI Symposium in Beijing in April 2012 and the AIPPI Congress in Seoul in October 2012.