6, December, 2018
The eighth edition of the Business of IP Asia Forum (BIP Asia Forum) jointly organised by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) and the Hong Kong Design Centre, opened today at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC).
The two-day forum brings together more than 80 intellectual property (IP) experts from leading global companies, including Virgin Hyperloop One, Amazon Web Services, Nestle SA, Procter & Gamble and Ant Financial, to share insights on a range of industry topics and discuss the advantages Hong Kong offers for exploring new business opportunities. With more than 90 exhibitors showcasing their products and services, and backed by the online platform Asia IP Exchange (www.asiaipex.com), the forum provides a valuable one-stop platform to foster cooperation between governments, industry, academia, research institutions and the business sector, and encourage IP trade and wider application of new technologies.
Highlights on the first day of the BIP Asia Forum included two plenary sessions featuring key decision makers in the field of international IP. In the first session, Wang Binying, Deputy Director General of WIPO; Antony Taubman, Director of the Intellectual Property Division of the World Trade Organization; Freddy Harris, Chair of the ASEAN Working Group on Intellectual Property Cooperation and Director General of Intellectual Property at the Ministry of Law and Human Rights of the Republic of Indonesia; and Jacqueline Bracha, Deputy Director of the Israel Patent Office, shared insights into the development and socio-technological effects of the global IP regulatory regime.
Another highlight at today's forum was the IPHatch Hong Kong Launch, co-organised by the HKTDC and Piece Future. This competition, aimed at encouraging start-ups to identify and convert valuable IP into assets, offers 10 IP portfolios from Panasonic Corporation, Nokia Technologies, the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute Company Limited (ASTRI), and the City University of Hong Kong. The patents cover various sectors including smart city development, advanced manufacturing, IoT, healthcare and wellness, and property technology.
The HKTDC will sign a cooperation agreement with the National Research Development Corporation of India at the forum tomorrow, taking the total number of strategic partners in the Asia IP Exchange (AsiaIPEX) to 39. The HKTDC has also signed agreements with Australia, Italy and the Czech Republic this year. AsiaIPEX now features more than 28,000 tradable IP listings, ranging from patents and trademarks to copyrights and registered designs, in areas such as biotechnology, medicine, electronics, engineering, film and publications, strengthening the links between global IP owners, intermediary service providers and manufacturers.