Von Seidels managing partner, Bastiaan Koster recently spoke at the BIPF (BRICS IP Forum) on 28 March 2018 and also attended the BRICS IP Conference (the 10th BRICS Heads of Intellectual Property Offices’ Meeting) and visited law firms in Chengdu, China. At the BRICS IP Conference the Heads of the IP Offices of the BRICS countries signed a “Joint Statement on Strengthening Intellectual Property Cooperation”.
Von Seidels supported the BIPF as its exclusive South African partner.
At the BIPF Bastiaan presented a talk on IP in Africa including the business relationship between China and Africa; foreign investment, technology and IP opportunities.
180 professionals attended the BIPF, mostly from Chinese firms.
Bastiaan has been visiting China regularly for the last 9 years and has seen China’s fast economic and technological progress.
China currently has 17,000 registered patent attorneys and a target has been set to have 25,000 by 2020.
There are currently 13,000 patent examiners at SIPO (State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China) and the number is growing.
SIPO and the Chinese Trade Mark Office amalgamated two weeks ago to work more efficiently.
According to Chinese patent attorneys, 20 new patent firms are founded in China every month. China has become the country filing the most patent applications annually and the number exceeds 1.2 million with most applications being filed by Chinese applicants.
