CONFERENCE ORGANISED BY EW BARKER CENTRE FOR LAW & BUSINESS DESIGN LAW REFORM CONFERENCE by Associate Professor Elizabeth Siew-Kuan Ng 19 & 20 September 2017, Tuesday & Wednesday EW Barker Centre for Law & Business Faculty of Law, University of Singapore, Level 3, Auditorium From left: Sara Ashby (United Kingdom), Clare Boucher (United Kingdom), Catriona Smith (United Kingdom), Anna Tischner (Poland), Estelle Derclaye (United Kingdom), Graeme Austin (New Zealand/ Australia), David Stone (United Kingdom), Graeme Dinwoodie (United Kingdom), Ansgar Ohly (Germany), Elizabeth Siew-Kuan Ng (Singapore), Emily Haslam (Hong Kong, China), Natasha Hinds-Payne (United Kingdom), Tee Jim Tan, S.C. (Singapore), Henning Hartwig (Germany), Agnes Kwek (Singapore), Keita Sato (Japan), Jeremy Sun (Singapore), Simon Seow (Singapore), Mark Lim (Singapore). Over the last few years, design protection has assumed an ever greater prominence on the national and international policymaking agenda. As countries strive to create or revise design protection regimes to encourage creative design that is thought by many to be central to economic or industrial growth, a number of models are being considered. Foremost among those models are those found in the European Union and the United Kingdom, as well as that seen in the United States. The situation is fluid. In Europe, in July 2016, the European Commission published its Legal Review of Industrial Design Protection. And, as part of the response to the decision of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union, the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office is considering options that the United Kingdom might pursue in Brexit negotiations or after Brexit. Singapore s registered designs review was completed in March 2016 (after nearly 2 years). It was aimed at enhancing support to the design industry, as well as complementing the Design Masterplan 2025 which had recommended that businesses capitalize on IP in value creation through design innovation. At the international level, design protection has been included in the intellectual property chapters of trade agreements (such as the TPP), and discussion of a design treaty is moving apace at the World Intellectual Property Organization.
This major public conference is part of a research project to explore the role and shape of design protection. The conference was organized in Singapore in September 2017 by EW Barker Centre for Law & Business and co-hosted by the Oxford Intellectual Property Research Centre (Oxford). It brought together a group of leading scholars, experts from the legal profession, academia, policymakers, and industry design leaders from Australia, China, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong (China), Japan, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, United Kingdom, United States among others. We had leading speakers who are academics, policymakers and legal practitioners in the field of designs and attracted very high stellar group of speakers and participants. We believe that the legal policy debate benefited from incorporating designers and business persons who contributed to a preliminary sessions that helped to identify the challenges that they see in current design protection. We narrowed down the range of topics that we would explore with legal and policy participants after the preliminary session with design and business leaders. Those topics would fall broadly into 3 main categories: Designs embodying a technical function: a central question in modern design regimes deals with technical function and the conceptual ways in which design laws can incorporate protection for intefrated design features etc. Subject-matter of design protection: this is one of the key areas of Singapore law reform with particular focus on virtual design and grace periods. International framework: Important international developments such as the developments in the World Intellectual Property Organization towards a Design Law Treaty; fate of unitary rights after Brexit etc. The research papers will be published in a special issue of the Oxford Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice which will be edited by David Stone, Graeme Dinwoodie and Elizabeth Siew-Kuan Ng. From left: Elizabeth Siew-Kuan Ng (Deputy chairwoman, EW Barker Centre for Law & Business & Director, IP Research Unit, NUS Law), Simon Chesterman (Dean & Professor of Law, NUS Law), Ms Indranee Rajah(Senior Minister of State (SMS) for Law and Finance), His Excellency Scott Wightman ( British High Commissioner to Singapore).
Session 1: The Importance of Design: Design and Business Perspectives From left: Mr. David Stone (OIPRC of oxford Univeristy / Allen & Overy (United Kingdom), Ms Agnes Kwek (Executive Director, Design Singapore Council, Singapore), Mr Jeremy Sun (Design Director, Orca Design Consultants, Singapore),Ms Natasha Hinds-Payne (In-house Lawyer of IP and Brand Protection, Cath Kidston Limited, United Kingdom), Ms Emily Haslam (Head of Legal, Halo Creative & Design Ltd, Hong Kong, China) Session 2: The Relationship Between Registered and Unregistered Rights From left: Mr Tan Tee Jim S.C. ( Lee & Lee, Singapore), Professor Anna Tischner (Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland), Ms Sara Ashby (OIPRC of Oxford University/Redd, United Kingdom), Professor Keita Sato (Chuo University Law School, Tokyo, Japan)
Session 3: Subject Matter of Design Protection From the left: Professor Graeme Dinwodie (Director, Oxford IP research Centre, United Kingdom), Professor Cui Guobin (Tsinghua University School of Law, Beijing, China), Ms Catriona Smith (OIPRC of Oxford University/ Redd, United Kingdom), Dr Stanley Lai S.C. (Allen & Gledhill LLP/ IPOS/NUS Law, Singapore) Photo taken after the closing keynote by RT Hon Matt Hancock MP, United Kingdom Parliament. From the left: Professor Graeme Austin (University of Melbourne Law School, Australia/ Victoria University of Wellington Law School, New Zealand), Professor Elizabeth Siew-Kuan Ng (EWBCLB of NUS Law, Singapore), RT Hon Matt Hancock MP (United Kingdom Parliament),Professor Graeme Dinwoodie (Director, Oxford IP Research Centre, United Kingdom)
Session 4: Challenges Of Designs Embodying A Technical Function From the left: Professor Graeme Austin (University of Melbourne Law School, Australia/ Victoria University of Wellington Law School, New Zealand), Professor Elizabeth Siew-Kuan Ng (EWBCLB of NUS Law, Singapore), Professor David Llewelyn (SMU Law, Singapore) Session 5: The International Reform Agenda From the left: Mr David Stone (OIPRC of Oxford University/ Allen & Overy, United Kingdom), Ms Maria Paola Rizo (World Intellectual Property Organization, Switzerland), Dr Henning Hartwig (Batgehle Pagenberg Parnerschaft mbb, Munich, Germany), Professor Estelle Derclaye (University of Nottingham, United Kingdom)
Session 6: So Where Does That Leave Us? From the left: Professor Graeme Dinwoodie (Director, Oxford IP Research Centre, United Kingdom), Mr Simon Seow (Ministry of Law, Singapore), Mr Mark Lim (Intellectual Property Office of Singapore, Singapore), Mr David Stone (OIPRC of Oxford University/ Allen & Overy, United Kingdom), Professor Ansgar Ohly (OIPRC of Oxford University, United Kingdom), Dr Angela Daly (Vice Chancellor s Research Fellow, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia), Ms Clare Boucher (Head of Design Policy, UKIPO, United Kingdom).