Business of IP Asia Forum 2023: Highlights and insights

The Business of IP Asia Forum attracts intellectual property (IP) professionals and business leaders from around the world to an event to discuss the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities in the field, and to explore collaboration possibilities. The above video provides a snapshot of the most recent forum, which took place in Hong Kong in December 2023.

The theme of the forum, which was jointly organised by the Hong Kong SAR government and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, was “IP & Innovation: Steering New Economic Growth”. Indeed, as Asia continues its transition away from being a manufacturing powerhouse to an innovation hub, the importance of viewing intangible assets as a source of value cannot be over-stated.

More than 90 speakers shared their insights, with 2,500-plus attendees. The participants included senior IP figures from the WIPO, the CNIPA, the International Olympic Committee, top-tier law firms, governmental agencies, and multinationals such as Alibaba and Amazon, as well as entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and angel investors.

The latest developments in AI and biotechnology advancements were particularly hot topics at the thirteenth staging of the forum, as emerging technologies reshape the IP landscape and drive innovation across industries.

The forum included the following discussions:

• Policy Dialogue – Powering Economic Growth through a Future-Ready IP Policy;

• Plenary Session – Underpinning Brand Success: IP Strategies in the Digital Era;

• Global Tech Summit – Generative AI;

• ASEAN Session on Unlocking Trade Mark Value – Pioneering with Brand Licensing;

• IPHatch Asia – Empowering Innovation and Entrepreneurship with IP; and

• IP Collaboration and Competition in the Biomedical Industry in the Greater Bay Area.

The forum also offered dedicated networking time, and a recurring theme of the Business of IP Asia Forum is the power of collaboration in driving IP innovation. Partnerships between industry players, research institutions, and government bodies are fuelling groundbreaking discoveries and driving economic growth. As Daren Tang, the director general of WIPO, says in the video: "When you innovate, you need to collaborate."

Tang also notes that the programme of the event is expanding each year and has an increasingly vibrant nature, as reflected in the video. The next BIP Asia Forum, on December 5–6 2024, is eagerly anticipated as it will provide another opportunity to hear expert accounts of the latest IP developments and gain an insight into what the future holds.