Successful Conference took place in the Castle of Vajdahunyad, Budapest on Global and European Initiatives for Sharing Work between Intellectual Property Authorities on 17-18 May 2011
The Conference was organised by the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office under the Hungarian EU Council Presidency with the financial support of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
The Conference, which featured, among others, such high-ranking speakers as Mr. Ferenc Zombor, Deputy State Secretary of the Hungarian Ministry of Justice, Mr. Francis Gurry, Director General of WIPO, Mr. Benoît Battistelli, President of the European Patent Office (EPO), Mr. Christian Archambeau, Vice-President of the Organisation for the Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM), Mr. David Kappos, Director of the US Patent and Trademark Office, or Ms. Margot Fröhlinger, Director of the European Commission (EC), gave an impetus to the discussions on IPR enforcement and cooperation between the interested parties.
The first day was devoted to the topic of better enforcement of IPRs, and the challenges that counterfeiting and piracy pose in the field of intellectual property protection. Besides the internationally well-known speakers, such as Mr. Christian Archambeau (OHIM), the Hungarian experts of the field were also represented by Mr. Erik Bogsch, CEO of Gedeon Richter Plc. and Mr. András Szecskay, President of the Hungarian Association for the Protection of IP and Copyright.
The second day was about work sharing on a global scale, especially among the US, Japan and Europe, including the development of the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH), as well as on a European scale, between the national intellectual property offices and the European Patent Office. Besides the invaluable contributions in the theme of Mr. John Alty, Chief Executive and Comptroller General of the UK IPO, and Mr. Josef Kratochvíl, President of the IPO of the Czech Republic, Mr. Jesper Kongstad, Director General of the Danish Patent and Trademark Office gave voice to the need of furthering the enhanced partnership between the EPO and the national patent offices. The director of the EC, Ms. Margot Fröhlinger and the President of the EPO, Mr. Benoît Battistelli showed the way forward, also including the challenges, for the European patent system.
The Conference, according to the participants' feedbacks, was a great success, which brought together some of the greatest figures of intellectual property in the world.
The presentations of the Conference will be published on the Conference website at the following address: http://euhupres_conf_2011budapest.hungary.com/conference-programme.