Southeast Asian officials to join EUIPO IP Mediation Conference

IP Key SEA has supported officials from the national IP offices of South-East Asia to attend the EUIPO IP Mediation Conference in Alicante, Spain, which took place on 30-31 May 2019. The conference allowed the participants to learn more on the cutting-edge practices in the field of IP mediation. Additionally, the SEA officials had the opportunity to participate in a session on mediation communication and negotiation techniques, which took place on 29 May, thus preceding the IP Mediation conference.

Leading experts from national and international institutions, academia and from the EUIPO itself addressed a wide range of topics, including global trends in IP mediation, mediation practices in the different fields of IP, IP court mediation, policies and mechanisms for domain name dispute resolutions, and the development and effective use of soft skills in resolving IP disputes, among others.

The IP officials attending from South-East Asia were also provided with the opportunity to participate in bilateral meetings with EUIPO officials, namely from International Cooperation and Legal Affairs Department (ICLAD) and the EUIPO’s Boards of Appeal. This has allowed them to gather some important insights on IP mediation best practices, and also open up future opportunities for closer collaboration between the SEA IP offices and the EUIPO/IP Key SEA.

The success of this activity contributes directly to IP Key SEA’s mandate to improve the intellectual property environment in the region for the benefit of all stakeholders operating with and within the region. This is due to mediation’s nature of being a fast-growing discipline within IP with an increasingly important role as an alternative for settling disputes.