On January 27^th, the China IP International Annual Forum & the 2018 Annual Conference of In-house IP Managers in China (the “Forum”) was held at the JW Marriot Hotel in Beijing. Watson & Band’s IP service team was again named a 2017 Outstanding IP Service Team in China. As representative of Watson & Band’s IP service team as well as General Manager of Watson & Band Intellectual Property Agent Ltd., Mr. Hua Xiao attended the Forum and accepted the honor on behalf of the team. Also present at the Forum were three other team partners -- Mr. Liming Zhang, Mr. Yizhou Liu and Ms. Mule Li.

Since its premiere in 2011, the Forum has become one of the most influential forums in the Chinese intellectual property industry, due to its enthusiastic attendees and extensive influence. This year’s Forum, themed “Transformation”, focused on reinstallation of the IP value of enterprises. At the China IP Summit Forum, experts and scholars from both academics and practice summarized administrative, legislative and/or judicial hot-button issues, trends and standards relating to IP rights in China in 2017. They also predicted developing trends for IP rights in China for the upcoming year, and they jointly explored new domestic and international pathways for innovation-driven IP developments.

The annual appraisal and selection of Outstanding IP Service Teams in China is hosted by China Intellectual Property magazine. In order to comprehensively and impartially evaluate the overall capacities of the candidate teams, this year’s appraisal started with the practices and expertise advantages of candidate IP services teams, and it applied a method combining special index rankings with comprehensive interviews and reports. With its outstanding professional competency, broad expertise, superior research ability and strong team spirit, Watson & Band stood out from the other candidates and took home the award. In the future, the Watson & Band IP service team will continue its operational model of “service by teams and management by departments”. It will also provide its clients with detailed investment strategies and superb legal services that are tailored to specific industries.