Roving Seminars on the Registered Community Design

IP Key and SIPO jointly organised a series of three seminars in China on the Registered Community Design (RCD), held in Haikou (Hainan), Changsha (Hunan), and Chengdu (Sichuan) in April 2014.

The RCD roving seminar series is one of several activities IP Key is undertaking to build awareness and understanding among Chinese stakeholders of the IP systems in Europe. Christophe Gimenez, IP attaché to China from the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM), and Dr. Oliver Lutze, Special Counsel/ Manager of the Shanghai Office of IP law firm Spruson & Ferguson (Asia), were the lead speakers at the seminars. They were joined by senior speakers from SIPO as well as the heads of the IP offices in Sichuan, Hunan, and Hainan.

The seminars covered all major aspects of the RCD system, which is administered by OHIM, including filing, registration, invalidation and enforcement. A range of examples and cases were shared with the audience, and recommendations provided on design management approaches for Chinese companies looking to do business in Europe.