‘Paradise on Earth’: Hangzhou hosts AIPPI’s first China Congress

For the first time in its 127-year history, the AIPPI World Congress will be hosted in China. WIPR talks to the association’s Chinese Group leadership to find out more.

For the first time in its 127-year history, the AIPPI World Congress 2024 will be hosted in China.

The event—which will take place in Hangzhou, in east China’s Zhejiang Province, south of Shanghai—is expected to welcome 2,000 delegates from more than 90 countries and regions.

Getting Hangzhou on the Congress map is a bit of a coup. It’s not that the association’s Chinese Group hadn’t tried to be chosen as a Congress venue—they were knocked back twice before getting third-time lucky with Hangzhou.

“It wasn’t that easy for us to get this opportunity to host the Congress in China,” says  (Richard) Yi Li, secretary general of the AIPPI Chinese Group and senior adviser of CCPIT Patent & Trademark Law Office.

Li and Chuanhong Long, president of the AIPPI Chinese Group and president of CCPIT Patent & Trademark Law Office, reveal that they had previously put Beijing forward as a host city.

“Most IP professionals in China are from Beijing, so we thought if our foreign counterparts come to China, they will definitely come to Beijing,” says Li.

Not to be defeated, though, they decided to change tack and put Hangzhou forward—a move that proved successful.

‘Heaven on Earth’

It’s easy to see why Hangzhou was chosen. Known for its rich history and natural scenery, Li points out that it is also a “very internationalised city and very convenient to get here.”

“Many people may know Beijing or Shanghai, but maybe don't know much about Hangzhou,” Long adds.

Hangzhou is a city with a mixture of natural beauty and history, with famous beauty spots such as West Lake]. And it is a city with a long history, having been the capital of the ancient South Song Dynasty (1127–1279), which ruled the country during one of its cultural epochs.

“There is an [old] saying in Chinese, that ‘high above the sky there is paradise, but here on the earth we have Suzhou and Hangzhou’,” remarks Long (上有天堂, 下有苏杭—Shang you tian tang, xia you su hang). “Hangzhou was considered a paradise on earth.”

Marco Polo was the first Westerner to visit Hangzhou, in the late 13th century—30 years after the city fell to the Mongol hordes of Kublai Khan. Polo later wrote that it was "beyond dispute the finest and the noblest in the world."

Long adds that Hangzhou is renowned for its beautiful, high-quality silk and for its special green tea. “Longjin Tea [or dragon well tea] in Hangzhou is one of the most famous green tea species in the area,” he explains.

A local experience

National hosting groups play a key part in selecting venues and social events and work with the international association to organise each Congress, Long explains.

“We mainly help to choose the ‘menu’ of the Congress, and to recommend venues for the social events like the Cultural Evening, Women in IP, and the Young AIPPI Forum.”

One item on that ‘menu’ that Long and Li have organised is a special session to kick off the Congress—a real patent court trial.

This is not a mock trial, stresses the association, it is a genuine patent infringement trial at the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court on the morning of Friday, October 18.

The Opening Ceremony and Welcome Reception will mark the official start of the Congress in the evening of Saturday, October 19.

On Sunday, October 20 is a special Women in AIPPI event that will take place at the China National Silk Museum, the largest in the world and a UNESCO heritage site.

The Cultural Evening, also on October 20, offers two options. Option 1 is ‘Enduring Memories of Hangzhou’, performed on West Lake in Hangzhou, which brings Chinese poetry, opera, music, dance, tai chi, tea ceremony and other traditional Chinese cultures to the audience.

Option 2 is the debut of ‘Elegance of Xianghu’, a large-scale digital show at Xianghu Lake, which weaves together the rich local cultural legacies. Performance elements include an adjustable water stage, fountains, portable visual platforms and drone formations.

Speakers and sessions

This year’s AIPPI Congress theme is ‘Balanced Protection of Intellectual Property and Innovative Development’.

As well as speakers from around the world, there will, of course, be many speakers from the Chinese Group who are involved in the panel discussions, explain Long and Li.

There are three particularly China-focused panel sessions. On the first full day of Congress, IP Today: What’s new for IPR Examination and Protection in China (Panel Session I, Sunday October 20) will provide an update on administrative and judicial IPR protection mechanisms in China and explain how your Chinese IP rights can be protected.

Speakers are Weilin Liu of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA); Haiyan Zheng, CNIPA; Jiang Jianzhong, Supreme People's Court of China; and Zhijun Chen, Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court. Session I will be moderated by Lorenza Ferrari Hofer, AIPPI.

In Takedowns & More: IP Battles in the Digital Worlds (Panel Session IX, Monday 21), there’s a discussion on how digital commercial platforms such as Amazon and China-based Alibaba deal with IP protection and infringement.

“The main speakers on this panel are from the online platforms—big players in e-commerce,” says Long. “Counterfeit issues are more difficult for online platforms than for the real [physical] market. So they can share what they are doing to deal with this issue, and share their experience.”

The session features speakers from those platforms, including Rachel Wang, Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group; Rain Ni, Amazon; Cheng Cheng, Douyin Group; Ross Zhang, Tencent; Michelle Chen Dunn, Platinum Intellectual Property; and Annick Wang, Treasury Wine Estates. Session IX will be moderated by Qiang Ma of Jingtian & Gongcheng.

And on the final day, Hot Pot of IP: China, Japan, Korea (Panel Session XIV, Tuesday 22), will provide an update on recent and important IP reforms and decisions from China, Japan and Korea. Speakers are IP practitioners from China, Japan and Korea: YoungJoo Song, KAI International Intellectual Property Law Firm; Yuzuru Okabe, Okabe International Patent Office; Yanfeng Xiong, China Patent Agent (HK). This session will be moderated by Guillaume Henry, AIPPI.

Future AIPPI World Congresses will be held in Yokohama (13-16 September 2025), Hamburg (7-10 October 2026) and Dubai (October 2027).

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