Art, Music, IP Mix in World Congress Opening Ceremony

10 September 2022

“We no longer take evenings like these for granted,” said Chris Carani, Chair of AIPPI-US, and master of ceremonies at the opening ceremony for the 2022 AIPPI World Congress in San Francisco. “We have much to celebrate - the mere fact that we are all here tonight to rekindle old friendships and make some new ones - we know how special these moments are.”

Celebrating 125 years, AIPPI opened its 2022 World Congress via a mix of music and visual art with uplifting comments by speakers and a keynote speech by a U.S. Court of Appeals judge.

AIPPI President Luiz Henrique do Amaral said it was a “great pleasure” to be back in person. “During the pandemic, we had to make very difficult decisions. AIPPI could stay behind, waiting, or we could take the initiative,” he said. That initiative led to the organization holding 240 committee meetings online during the pandemic, along with a series of webinars and activities. “Our production of scientific content, resolutions, papers and all of the materials necessary for the improvement of intellectual property and international harmonization was [very important to do], even online,” do Amaral said.

AIPPI continues to be relevant in the development of intellectual property, and will continue to do the works the founders of the organization always thought would be possible, do Amaral said.

Patrick Coyne, AIPPI-US President, spoke on the importance of globalization and world trade and the role the organization and its members can play. “We may have intergovernmental strife and trade wars and all kinds of issues, but the bottom line is [the world trade system] has ensured a tremendous amount of world peace and a fantastic improvement in human health and condition in the past 75 years. Am I going to attribute all of this to IP? No, but I want to attribute a lot of it to IP, because the harmonization of our systems supports innovation.”

Marsha S. Berzon, Senior Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, remarked that while the Ninth Circuit is a generalist court, it sees a large amount of intellectual property cases due to filings arising from Seattle, Silicon Valley and Hollywood, the homes of two industries, high-tech and entertainment, that generate a large percentages of the intellectual property cases nationwide. Judge Berzon said that judges often rely on a variety of sources to understand IP matters, and to reach their decisions. “We can read foreign cases, amicus briefs and published materials. We will continue to use those sources and we hope you will help us do that,” she said.

The final speaker of the ceremony was Soy Fira, a Colombian crypto artist, who told the audience about how her life has been changed by the combination of technology and art.

“As an artist, I came to realize that the biggest obstacle is not to sell artwork, but to provide the authenticity and traceability that art collectors in the digital age were looking for,” she said. “When you mix art with blockchain technology, you have NFTs,” she said. “Blockchain changed my life and the life of many creatives.”

- Gregory Glass, San Francisco