On July 9, 2019, the International College of Intellectual Property of Tongji University hosted the lecture on “Design and Intellectual Property in the Digital Age” in Room 1004, Zhonghe Building. Many domestic and foreign experts and scholars participated in the lecture. Ms. Chikowore, the Consultant of WIPO Academy, made an opening speech.

As to how to deal with the concurrence of intellectual property law and anti-unfair competition law, Prof. Joseph Straus, the Former Director of Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, believed that the two legal systems should be applied equally and fully independently, emphasizing that courts should conduct case analysis.

Prof. Kamal Puri from the Queensland University of Technology introduced Australia’s design protection system and pointed out that the duality of design and copyright protection is an important feature of Australia’s design protection legal system. He also shared the protection system of designs in the EU and the UK.

Prof. Irene Calboli from Texas A&M University School of Law introduced the current intellectual property protection of designs and related items in the fashion industry, including copyright law, patent law, trademark law, commercial design, and so on.

Prof. Alessandro Enrico Cogo from the University of Turin mainly discussed the protection and infringement of computer-aided design documents for the reason that this type of documents may infringe on the intellectual property rights of third parties.

Ms. Huang Yangyang, the Lawyer of Co-EFFORT Law Firm LLP, presented the current dispute and the development trend of the designs in China which are dual protected by patent law and copyright law. Then she introduced the design dispute resolution system, namely administrative relief, litigation, and alternative dispute resolution.

Group photo of all the participants

Translated by Zhijie Wei