IAM held the IP Business Congress (IPBC) Shenzhen 2020 event on December 1-2 this year, focusing on various developments in the global patent landscape. Panel discussions reviewed important strategies for companies to consider for managing their IP portfolios, such as balancing IP development with cost, facilitating collaboration internally and externally with IP, and modifying IP objectives throughout different growth stages of a company.

Additionally, the event repeatedly emphasized the growth of the patent system in China. As innovation in China has rapidly grown in the last decade, the Chinese patent system has developed significantly as well, with more proficient examination and enforcement.

A final panel discussion considered the impact of AI on patent systems around the world. As machine learning and machine translation capabilities further improve, prior art searching will become more focused and effective. In particular, the growing capability of patent offices to obtain accurate translations of international literature as prior art, through machine translation, could lead to higher rates of rejection during patent prosecution.