The meeting will be co-hosted with the IP Academy, the education arm of IPOS, on Friday 28th August. The programme can be viewed on the MARQUES website.
Peter Wild, Chair of the MARQUES Programming Team, said the programme has two goals: “First, to create more awareness of the option, opportunities and advantages of arbitration in general, including among SME managers who we invite to think about arbitration clauses when they create contracts. Second, a special topic will be the UDRP system which has very small numbers in Singapore and we want to make it better known, and explain the advantages.”
Speakers include Trina Ha, legal counsel and faculty at the IP Academy, Stanley Lai of Allen & Gledhill, Erik Wilbers of the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center and Francine Tan of Francine Tan Law Corporation.
Overcoming resistance
Peter said he sees arbitration becoming more common in IP cases: “I started introducing arbitration clauses in every contract about two years ago. In the beginning there was resistance, but now I face less resistance and people are familiar with it.” He added that the efficiency and confidentiality of arbitration are key to its appeal.
“We hope people at this seminar will see both the opportunity and limits of arbitration,” said Peter.
He also said that the Singapore event will be replicated elsewhere, including in Europe, if it is a success.
In addition, MARQUES is planning to establish a new Dispute Resolution Team later this year.
Issue 053
The Committee of Experts of the Nice Union has accepted changes to the Nice Classification proposed by OHIM and prepared by the CP1 Working Group. MARQUES was one of two users associations that took part in this Working Group.
WIPO is hosting a Madrid System Seminar at its headquarters in Geneva on 18th and 19th June.
The Madrid System website was updated in May, as part of a longer term project to ensure it meets the information and transactional requirements of users.
