The AIPPI World Congress
took place in Milan this week. The Managing IP team was onsite
producing the AIPPI Congress News daily newsletter.
You can download the AIPPI Congress News by visiting our
Conference Newsletter section
here,
or by clicking on the individual days below.
Among the highlights were a speech at the opening ceremony by
WIPO’s Director General Francis Gurry, who
outlined five challenges for the IP system. In an interview
with us after the speech he discussed the trend towards
bilateral and multilateral agreements, many of which address
IP – including TTP, TTIP and RCEP.
"It would be a pretension to think you can impede that,"
Gurry said, adding: "It raises the question of coherence.
Things should fit like Russian dolls. If one is square and
not round, you’re in trouble."
The following day, EPO President Benoît Battistelli
gave a lunchtime keynote speech outlining how the EPO is
tackling its backlog. The Office expects to register about
90,000 patents this year, an increase of about one-third on
last year, when it registered 68,400 patents.
Battistelli said the growth in registrations was due to "a
record increase in productivity" without compromising patent
quality. The number of products (such as search reports)
completed by each full-time equivalent staff member has
increased from 49.8 in 2014 to 60.3 this year.
Other highlights from the Congress include Jordan being
accepted as new AIPPI national group, a panel of judges
discussing the role of expert evidence, a session on the
implications of Brexit, food companies having a taste for 3D
trade marks, pharmaceutical practitioners outlining their
concerns about patentable subject matter and an interview
with the new AIPPI President, Hao Ma.