On May 30th and 31^st(Spain time), the Second World Intellectual Property Mediation Conference organized by the European Union Intellectual Property Office was held in Alicante, Spain. Experts and scholars from the world gathered to discuss the advantages and experience of IP dispute mediation. As an important partner of the European Union Intellectual Property Office, the Shanghai Commercial Mediation Center (hereinafter referred to as the “Mediation Center”) was invited to attend this conference.

Group photo of the delegation of the mediation center

Winnie Tam SC, a Senior Counsel and former chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association, addressed at the conference as the representative of the Mediation Center. From the perspective of a mediator, she shared the practical experience and active exploration of the mediation center with conference participants through a large amount of datum and cases. She considered it necessary to strengthen communication and cooperation among international mediation agencies, to firmly grasp the methods of dispute settlement and jointly explore issues, including mediation techniques, skills and implementation of mediation agreements, etc.

Senior Counsel Winnie Tam SC addressed at the conference

The establishment of Shanghai Intellectual Property Court coincided with the comprehensive advcancement of China's diversified dispute resolution mechanism. Therefore, from the beginning , the court established the coordination between litigation and mediation with mediation institutions such as SCMC. Judge Xufei, representative of the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court, introduced the trial practice of intellectual property protection as well as the working experience and mode of the coordination between litigation and mediation at the conference, which was highly recognized by the participants.

Judge Xufei, introduced the working experience  of the coordination between litigation and mediation

The two-day conference, conducted a comprehensive and systematic analysis and discussion on the resolution of intellectual property disputes from six aspects,. respectively, the additional value of mediation, the trend and practice of global intellectual property mediation, intellectual property mediation practice in the judicial field, artificial intelligence (AI) and mediation, skills and methods in mediation of intellectual property disputes,and advanced mediation skills. Nearly 400 insider experts from the world attended the conference.