Today we were visited by our long-time colleague Mr. Franck Soutoul, representing INLEX IP EXPERTISE (MEA), with offices in Mauritius and France. We reflected on our recent experiences at the annual INTA meeting in San Diego, and also discussed how adaptation is more and more important in our field from a myriad of causes, such as exchange-rate fluctuation and other economic factors, challenges concerning the implementation of AI tools (both the merits and demerits), the opening of new markets and various other challenges we face in our ever-changing global community.

We had the pleasure of hosting Mr. Gang Hu, Mr. Jianzhong Yang, Ms. Ellen Wan Kit and Ms. Limei Liu from the China Patent Agent firm. They were kind enough to give us a presentation on the newest information about the trademark practice and examinations in Hong Kong, and afterwards we enjoyed a nice dinner together.

We were happy to receive a visit from Mr. Yee-Hwa Koh and Mr. Chang-Oh Ryu from the office of Kim & Chang (Korea). It had been some time since we had the chance to meet with our long-time associate Mr. Koh, and it was great to catch up. Mr. Ryu was kind enough to provide us with a presentation on recent changes to the IP practice in Korea that have already been or will be implemented in 2025.

We had the pleasure of meeting with Ms. Jan Liu、Ms. Yuan Yuan、Ms. Kaho Santo、Ms. Tia Lv the LexField Law Offices in China. They were kind enough to give us a presentation on recent trends and changes in trademark examination proceedings as well as how to register marks on the specially protected trademarks list in China. Of particular interest was their advice regarding avoiding and overcoming Office Actions involving rejections due to marks being misleading as to the quality of the specified goods, and also the risks involved in using such marks. We also discussed ways to anonymously file non-use cancellation actions.

Today we were visited by Ms. Ryang-eun Kim from the Yaejune International Patent and Trademark firm. We discussed several recent decisions in cases involving the evaluation of distinctiveness of trademarks and were provided helpful information about how to use the expedited examination system in Korea.