On the afternoon of October 18, the opening ceremony of WIPO-HUST Summer School on Intellectual Property was successfully held in the School of Management of Huazhong University of Science & Technology (HUST). Mr. Joe BRADLEY, Head of the Academic Institutions Program at WIPO Academy, and Prof. Zhang Xinliang, Vice President of HUST delivered the welcoming speeches at the opening ceremony. Prof. Yang Zhi, Dean of HUST’s School of Management hosted the opening ceremony.

Firstly, Prof. YANG, Zhi extended a warm welcome to the guests and participants of the WIPO-HUST Summer School and expressed his heartfelt thanks to the World Intellectual Property Organization for its support of this Summer School.

Mr. Joe BRADLEY then delivered the welcome speech on behalf of WIPO. He congratulated the success of the WIPO-HUST IP Summer School; expressing the WIPO Academy’s readiness to provide university students and young professionals with the opportunity to learn more about IP, how it can provide an opportunity for university students and young professionals to acquire a deeper knowledge of IP, and how IP can be used as a tool for sustainable development. Also discussed was the role of WIPO in the administration and provision of global IP services. He looked forward to seeing more and more cooperation between WIPO and HUST in the future.

Afterwards, Prof. Zhang Xinliang delivered an opening speech on behalf of HUST. He pointed out HUST was honored to be the second partner university of WIPO from mainland China to jointly train talent in the field of intellectual property delivered via a summer school. He then introduced the current status, academic & research achievements and development goals of the university, and wished the summer school great success.

After the opening ceremony, Prof. Dr. Yu Xiang, Director of the HUST Sino-European Institute for Intellectual Property and Prof. Dr. Dietmar HARHOFF, Director of the Max-Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, gave lectures on the topics of Patent Management in Enterprises and Measurement of Patent Value respectively, on the same day.

The summer school is co-hosted by WIPO and HUST, and is co-organized by HUST School of Management and Sino-European Institute for Intellectual Property. This English language summer school is conducted from Oct. 18 to Oct. 29. Twenty-three leading IP experts from countries and regions including Germany, USA, Japan, UK, France, Switzerland, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Australia, China’s mainland, Taiwan Region as well as Hong Kong SAR were invited to give lectures at the summer school. Among these experts were four members of Academia Europaea - the Academy of Europe, and one member of the German National Academy of Sciences. On the second day, October 19, Dr. Edward KWAKWA, Assistant Director General of WIPO, and Prof. Dr. Joseph STRAUS, the former managing director of the Max-Planck Institute for Intellectual Property Law and Competition Law, delivered lectures separately on the topics of The International Landscape of Intellectual Property and Patentability Principles and the DABUS cases on Artificial Intelligence.

Focusing on the theme of "Intellectual Property and Small and Medium Enterprises", the summer school helped participants gain a deeper understanding of the impact of intellectual property on the competitiveness of enterprises in today's society and the differences in the intellectual property regimes of enterprises when conducting business activities in different regions of the world. The WIPO-HUST Summer School attracted 109 successfully registered participants, including 66 university students and 43 professionals from many different countries such as China, Iran, Germany, Poland, Korea, Egypt, India, Nigeria etc.

Source: School of Management

Written by: Rong Xin

Edited by: Scott, Peng Yumeng