Immediately following the EXCO meeting, the FICPI/APAA Joint Symposium started on Friday morning, March 15 at the same location. Following appropriate welcomes from Ray Stewart of the FICPI U.S. Section, Francis Ahner, Vice-President of FICPI, and Myung Shin Kim, President of the Asian Patent Attorney Association (APAA), the programme began with a plenary session directed to a mock arbitration involving a domain name dispute. Parallel sessions for patents and trademarks were then held throughout the Symposium, culminating in a plenary session involving a stimulating and frank presentation by three judges, Hon. Paul R. Michel of the CAFC, Hon. Ronald M. Whyte of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and Hon. Paul J. Luckern of the International Trade Commission (ITC). The Qestion-and-Answer session was quite lively and interesting.

The accompanying persons visited the Richard Nixon Library on Friday, March 15, and the Getty Museum on Saturday, March 16. On Friday evening, the entire group attended a musical presentation and dinner at the Grove of Anaheim. The highlight of the presentation was an attempted can-can by Messrs. Ahner, Kim and Stewart. Although they tried hard, they definitely need more practice! The social part of the Symposium ended on Saturday evening with a Closing Dinner at the Palm Garden. The group enthusiastically welcomed and enjoyed a local high school steel drum band as the entertainment, which included three encores.

Many people stayed in the Newport Beach area on Sunday, March 17, because of the long travel. A golf tournament was enjoyed by 16 participants at the Pelican Hill Golf Club. Mr. Tee-Jim Tan of Singapore and Mr. Gary Nath of the U.S.A. tied for low gross score. The closest-to-the-pin contest was won by Mr. Klaus Fuechsle of Germany. The low net winner was Mr. Juichiro Yano of Japan. As an alternative to golf, 41 participants enjoyed a visit to Disneyland. Others toured the beautiful areas around Newport Beach on their own, including visits to the fabulous shopping centers nearby.

In addition to the three judges noted above, honoured guests during the week included Michael and Mary Catherine Kirk of AIPLA and Shozo Uemura, Jürgen Schmid-Dwertmann and Erik Wilbers of WIPO.

I would like to express my sincere thanks to the members of the Secretariat, Jennifer Lai, Kevin Mallett and Julia Sutton, for their hard work during the two meetings and to the members of the U.S. Organising Committee, Jack and Janie Sutton, Tip and Pat Jennings, Joe and Arla Mae Kolasch, Len Svensson and Andy Meikle. My special thanks go to my wife, Marie G. Stewart, who literally worked for months on the details for the two meetings. Finally, thanks also go to the members of Pacific Partners, the on-site conference organisers, Jean Vivrette, Maria Bramley, Dana Romano and Linda Thomson.

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Many of the papers presented at the Joint Symposium are available on this website.
Go to FICPI/APAA Papers