Pulungan Wiston & Partners at The APAA 2022 73rd Council Meeting in Busan, South Korea

The APAA 2022 73rd Council Meeting ends today in the beautiful and dynamic maritime city of Busan, South Korea. The event is held from October 15 to October 18, 2022.

Our firm’s attendance at the APAA 2022 meeting is represented by Ms Neneng Sri Wiyanti SH and Ms Rizky Dwi Amalia Pulungan SH who finally meet again our friends and IP colleagues from around the globe, for the first time after 3 years of covid-19 pandemic restrictions.

The 4-days APAA 2022 meeting has given us the opportunity to reconnect ourselves to the global IP community and to keep abreast of the recent issues and trends concerning IP practice these days. Especially, within the context of the rise of Social Media, Metaverse, Non-fungible tokens, and the increasing use of AI Technology.

This special event includes a range of programmes such as Standing & Special Committees Meetings, Council Meetings, Workshops, Women in APAA 2022, Welcome First Time Participants, Opening Ceremony, Welcome Reception, Hospitality Suite, Culture Night, and Farewell Banquet.

These are some of the warm issues discussed in the meetings as referred to on the APAA website:

Amendment of patent applications is a crucial procedure for granting an effective patent to the applicant and continues to be an interesting topic of practice for IP professionals. The APAA 2022 Standing Committee intends to conduct a comprehensive and informative survey of the limitations and requirements on amendments to patent applications in the recognized groups of APAA.

In this digital age, the fashion industry really needs the protection of its design because copying the design is easily done in no time. This is in contrast to the fact it usually takes time in many jurisdictions to get design registrations. Further, there are so many prior designs with regard to fashion and creativeness found on very little change therefrom, which may narrow the scope of the protection. The APAA 2022 meeting intends to discuss how fashion designs are protected under the Design law and other laws in each jurisdiction.

Social Media is a very powerful and efficient marketing tool for brand owners. At the same time, however, social media is not only used by the brand owners, but also by the local authorized distributors, influencers, and infringers. It would be a dilemma between the protection of trademark rights and freedom of speech. Social media is also an online form of communication and has no territory boundary, establishment of a trademark infringement case or proper use of the registered trademark in the local market would not be easy for the trademark owner. The laws and practices regarding how to protect the trademark owner in connection with issues on social media can differ from country to country. This meeting intends to compare and contrast how these issues are treated in each jurisdiction.

The recent prominent cases of fake Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have led to increased calls for greater market regulation for crypto assets. Most cases involve plagiarism and fraudulent listings. This APAA 2022 meeting is a great opportunity to discuss and share some of the ways, means and strategies that have been advised to clients to protect their crypto assets or from being defrauded by fake or counterfeit NFTs.

As emerging rights, the “metaverse” broadly refers to a persistent virtual world or environment in cyberspace through which users can interact with other users/objects within the parameters defined for that world. This technology presents interesting commercial opportunities as well as legal challenges, and in the context of IP, it raises questions on the extent to which existing laws can effectively protect and enforce IP rights in the “metaverse” and what further legal/regulatory measures may be desirable.

Besides the above meetings of APAA 2022, there are also workshops on applying trademark law in the metaverse and protecting a brand in virtual spaces. At the Patent workshop participant will look at high-profile cases on patent disputes and how they are resolved. There is also a discussion on alternative dispute resolution strategies, as well as how to prevent patent disputes at the outset. This is an excellent opportunity to learn and give advice on how to help clients develop worldwide patent protection strategies.

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