Mr. Au was the CEO of a financial services subsidiary of a Fortune 500 company. He also took senior positions in multinational investment banks. Mr. Au started doing business in the PRC and Asia since 1995 and is a frequent traveler to conduct market research and company visits. Mr. Au has also been awarded 2009中國經濟產業振興年度人物獎 by 2009 China Economic Development Forum (2009中國經濟發展論壇).

Steven is a Partner of MinterEllison LLP and has practiced in Hong Kong for almost 25 years. Steven represent clients from various business sectors including clothing manufacturers and brand licensees, banks, retail brands, household electrical appliance designers and manufacturers, and other participants in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector. He also assists law firms and trade mark and patent agents with IP registrations, commercial agreements and disputes matters for their international clients, which include many household names. Steven is a Council member and former President (2005-2007) of the Hong Kong Institute of Trade Mark Practitioners, Council member of the Intellectual Property Committee of the Law Society of Hong Kong, and Member and Subcommittee member of the International Trademark Association (INTA), Asian Patent Attorneys Association (APAA), as well as being a Notary Public. Through his engagement with the above bodies, he has been involved in several government consultations and lobbies for changes in the law. Steven has been consistently recognised for IP work by his peers in international published rankings, including being recognised by Asia Pacific Legal 500 as a Leading Lawyer in the area of Intellectual Property 2001-2019.

Originally from Sterling Massachusetts, USA Kevin moved to China in 2009 and started his career at Jabil one of the world’s largest technologically advanced and trusted manufacturing partners. Kevin has spent the past 10 years in China, Silicon Valley and Hong Kong driving integrated corporate innovation solutions with Fortune 100 companies from concept through implementation. In past roles, Kevin has managed industry leading clients in Consumer Electronics, MedTech, FMCG and Industrial IoT to scalable manufacturing solutions in Asia.

Kevin joined Brinc in 2018 and leads strategic engagements with forward thinking organizations aspiring to engage with Brinc’s global startup ecosystem to drive corporate innovation and investment objectives. Brinc ecosystem partners include private and public corporations, investors, universities and government organizations. Kevin also acts as a mentor for Brinc’s accelerator programs supporting founders seeking to navigate the challenges in establishing their supply chain in the GBA from abroad.

Kevin currently sits on the Innovation and Technology Committee for BritCham and AmCham and a strong advocate for innovation and entrepreneurship in Hong Kong. He is also an active mentor for HKU Innovation & Entrepreneurship Hub iDendron.

Mr. Dennis Cheung is the Associate Director of Teksbotics, who is responsible for autonomous driving and autonomous mobile robot business today.

In 2019, Hong Kong International Airport introduced Autonomous Electric Tractor (AET) for baggage delivery of sea-to-air and air-to-sea transit passengers. Autonomous driving solution replaced routine driving by human driver which offers robust and safer logistic moving while minimize human error. HKIA is the first airport in the world to have applied the driverless technology in live airport operations. Around the same time, Indoor Patrol Robots were introduced for collecting environmental and facilities information daily within T1 terminal while Indoor Delivery Robot carried out multipoint-to-multipoint delivery in airside of T1 terminal.

Prior to Teksbotics, Mr. Cheung had spent more than 20 years with US-based telecommunication equipment vendor ADTRAN and US-based multimedia system vendor AVID focusing in sales and business development across Asia Pacific.

Mr. Cheung graduated from the Columbia University in the City of New York in United States with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electric Engineering and a Master of Science degree in Electric Engineering. He pursed further studies in EMBA program at Chinese University of Hong Kong and obtained a Master of Business Administration degree.  

Ed Conlon is the Managing Editor of Managing IP, a news and analysis online service and publication. Based in London, Ed oversees and edits the online and print coverage, chairs and presents events and awards ceremonies, and commissions expert comment articles. He has knowledge of all areas of IP, including trademarks, patents and copyright.

Dr. S. H. Gary Chan is currently Professor in Department of Computer Science and Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), Hong Kong. He is also Chair of the Committee on Entrepreneurship Education Program at HKUST, and Board Director of Hong Kong Logistics and Supply Chain MultiTech R&D Center (LSCM). He received MSE and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University (Stanford, CA) with a minor in Business Administration. He obtained his B.S.E. degree (highest honor) in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University (Princeton, NJ), with certificates in Applied and Computational Mathematics, Engineering Physics, as well as Engineering and Management Systems.

Professor Chan has co-founded and transferred his research results to several startups. Due to their innovations and commercial impacts, his startups and research projects have received local and international awards (2012-2020). Notably, he received Hong Kong Chief Executive's Commendation for Community Service for "outstanding contribution to the fight against COVID-19" in 2020. He is a Chartered Fellow of The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (FCILT), and his research interests include smart sensing and IoT, cloud and fog/edge computing, indoor positioning and mobile computing, video/location/user/data analytics, and IT entrepreneurship.

Emile is a multi-disciplinary professional combine B2C & B2B marketing, industrial design and project management. In addition to projects he ran for fortune 500 brands in his decade at ad agencies, also previously founded his own tech consultancy agency focused on wireless products. His experience has led to successfully launching Origami Lab’s first product, ORII that set a record for the wearable ring category, almost instantly becoming a Kickstarter favorite. Today, his diversified expertise set OFLO apart in a world where enterprise products often weigh function over form.

Sophia Chan joined PwC Hong Kong in 2001. She is a Tax Partner specialized in Hong Kong and international tax. Sophia completed her 2-year secondment in the International Tax Services division of the New York office of PwC US working in outbound investments and spin-off exercises of US multinationals involving Asia.

  Sophia has extensive experience in advising clients from Hong Kong and international tax aspects. These include corporate and operation structuring for initial public offering, cross-border transactions, tax due diligence review and tax dispute and resolution. In recent years, Sophia also helped her multinational clients with global business presences to prepare for the rollout of Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) action plans. She is also a frequent speaker in public seminars on tax topics including BEPS, digital economy and etc.

Sophia’s clients are mainly from Consumer Markets and Technology Sectors and she has worked on various tax consulting projects of these clients including:
Assisted a multinational retail client to resolve its cross border tax dispute on licensing arrangement;
Assisted a Swiss luxury watch brand to restructure its global supply chain to improve cost and tax efficiency;
Assisted an e-commerce retailer to deal with its worldwide indirect tax matters;
Assisted various multinational corporations to plan and implement restructuring of their business models and holding structures from a tax perspective; and
Carried out buyer / vendor tax due diligence reviews as well as pre and post-deal restructuring.

Sophia obtained her Bachelor of Business Administration degree and Professional Diploma in China Accounting, Finance, Taxation and Law from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2001 and 2007 respectively. She is a Fellow Member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and a member of the Taxation Institute of Hong Kong.

In Hong Kong X-Tech Startup Platform, Mr Chen is in charge of external collaborations, business development, and also participate in projects investment. He is interested in chips and smart systems, artificial intelligence and information technology, health tech, advanced materials as well as innovative education sectors.

In Hong Kong X Foundation, Mr Chen is in charge of external cooperation, daily operation, coordination of think tank research projects, events planning and etc.

Mr Chen graduated from Hunan University, and awarded full scholarship to study in Netherlands Institute for Metals Research (NIMR). He also holds a Master degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Delft University of Technology. He has worked in various multi-national corporations, including USA Tyco Electronics, Holland OCE (now is a member of Canon), Philips and etc. He was in charge of new production introduction, supply chain management and supplier quality management. He was a management team member of Philips Hong Kong , and was honoured Philips CEO gold award.

Ms Teresa Cheng, SC, was appointed Secretary for Justice on January 6, 2018. She was a Senior Counsel in private practice before joining the Government. She is also a chartered engineer and chartered arbitrator. She was frequently engaged as arbitrator or counsel in complex international commercial or investment disputes.

Ms Cheng was one of the founders and Chairman of the Asian Academy of International Law. She is a Past Vice President of the International Council of Commercial Arbitration, Past Vice President of the ICC International Court of Arbitration and Past Chairperson of Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre. In 2008, she became the first Asian woman elected through a global election as President of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. She served as Deputy Judge / Recorder in the Court of First Instance of the High Court of Hong Kong from 2011 to 2017. She is a member of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes Panel of Arbitrators, and was a member of the World Bank's Sanctions Board.

Ms Cheng is a Fellow of King's College in London, and was the Course Director of the International Arbitration and Dispute Settlement Course at the Law School of Tsinghua University in Beijing.

JunHo Cho is a Korean entrepreneur with 12 years experience in startup business in Korea and Singapore. He is currently CTO of EC Bento which is a competition winner of 2019 IPHatch. Currently, he focuses on outlining the technological vision and strategies for new business opportunities. In his previous years, he has won Korea Mashup contest by Microsoft, Yahoo, NHN and KaKao. He is It design Award winner for UI/UX design platform. He was also nominated for Smart Awards Asia for Most innovative NFC project with his patent NFC technology.

Ms Margaret Fong is the Executive Director of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) since 1 October 2014. With a global network of 50 offices, Ms Fong heads this international team whose mission is to create and facilitate opportunities in global trade for Hong Kong-based companies. She joined the HKTDC in 2010 as Deputy Executive Director, responsible for the international promotion of Hong Kong’s product and service industries and the Council’s office network worldwide.

Ms Fong has worked in a variety of public service posts, beginning her career as an Administrative Officer with the Hong Kong Government. From 1997 to 1999, she served as Deputy Director-General in the Washington Economic and Trade Office of the Hong Kong SAR Government.

She was Deputy Secretary for Transport from 1999 to 2004, Director-General of the Washington Economic and Trade Office from 2004 to 2006, and Commissioner for Economic and Trade Affairs, USA, from 2006 to 2008, representing the Hong Kong SAR Government in the United States. Before joining the HKTDC, Ms Fong was the Commissioner for Tourism from November 2008 to December 2009. She is a graduate of the University of Hong Kong.

Ms Fong is a member of the Aviation Development and Three-runway System Advisory Committee, the Film Development Council, the Hong Kong Maritime and Port Board, the Hong Kong Logistics Development Council and the Hong Kong Tourism Board.

Dr. Huang is the Head of Exponent’s Asia Offices. He has worked in Europe, Asia and North America advising both industrial and legal clients in matters pertaining to product liability, intellectual property, trade secrets, technical due diligence, ITC investigations and commercial/insurance dispute resolution.

He also specializes in conducting consumer product recall investigations, including those involving CPSC FDA and RAPEX frameworks, and liaising between proactive product testing, risk management, safety, quality, reliability and beta testing programs for consumer product companies and manufacturing facilities around the world. Dr. Huang has extensive hands-on experience leading complex technical investigation and performing scientific and engineering analysis and testing in applications that includes the following:

Battery technologies
Consumer product manufacturing processes
Mobile devices and manufacturing processes
Electric Vehicles and e-mobility applications
Automotive and drone electronics and event data recorders
IoT and Smart Home appliances
Wearable devices and technologies
AR/VR technologies
Energy storage systems (ESS), solar panel, inverters, and green energy technologies
Secure payment devices
Biomedical and implantable devices
Power adapters and power supplies
Printed circuit boards
Consumer products (consumables, textile, food and chemcial)
Industrial manufacturing equipment and machinery


Dr. Huang is also skilled in prototype validation and development, including hardware, software, and embedded systems. He has developed implantable Parylene MEMS platforms for retinal and neural prosthetic, pressure sensors and lab-on-a-chip applications, built custom air quality and environmental monitoring equipment, and developed algorithm for agricultural asset management.

Dr. Huang currently serves as a voting member on IEC and UL standards development committees and has presented in numerous IEEE, Insurance Adjuster and technical conferences. He has taught undergraduate and graduate level courses in areas such as Computer Instrument Design, Introduction to Sensors and Actuators, VLSI and ULSI Technology, and MEMS Technology and Devices.

Andy has been involved with IT innovation in the construction sector for more than 20 years. Being the head of IT of an Asian Construction Company, he continues to drive the development of tailored solutions and frequently collaborates with various stakeholders to adopt new technologies and support innovation across disciplines. Andy is now also heading Nexplore HK at the HK Science and Technology Park, a global digital company focusing on driving innovation across the construction industry.

Mr Hong was born in September 1976, hailing from Shantou, Guangdong Province. A CPC member with a Bachelor’s degree in economics, he started his career in July 1998 and is now carrying the title of Senior Economist. He has successively been the person-in-charge of the general office and the department of human resources in Guanghong Asset Management Company, Guangdong; deputy general manager of Guanghong Aluminium Company, Guangdong; director of the general office of Guangdong Property Right Exchange Holding Group; and chairman of Shenzhen Qianhai Guangdong Property Right Holding Company. He is now the chairman and general manager of Guangzhou Intellectual Property Exchange Center (GIPEC).

Having worked in state-owned enterprises for a long time, Mr Hong is conversant in national policies, systems, as well as laws and regulations. He has an in-depth and original understanding of the systemic structure, strategic synergy and resource advantages of IP exchange centres while his experience in developing and running such a centre is extensive. Since Mr Hong’s joining, GIPEC has made it its core business in transferring and transforming the IP achievements of universities, research institutes and technology enterprises. Presently, GIPEC is offering a full range of services including IP registration, custody, listing, transaction, transfer, transform, financing and protection. It is now making all-out efforts in establishing a nationwide IP exchange alliance platform using blockchain and other e-technologies.

Charmaine Koo is the Co-head of Deacons’ Intellectual Property Department and the Head of IP Litigation and Enforcement, Commercial IP and Entertainment and Media Practice Groups.

Charmaine is admitted as a solicitor in Hong Kong, Canada and England and Wales. She has a BSc in biology from the University of Toronto, an LLB from Queen’s University, an LLM from Cambridge University and a Graduate Diploma in IP Law and Practice from the University of Bristol.

Charmaine’s practice covers all aspects of IP work including anti-counterfeiting strategies and enforcement of IP rights. She advises on complex IP enforcement advice and litigation and has won a number of high profile court cases resulting in ground-breaking decisions in the Hong Kong IP field. Her leading cases include Yakult vs. Yakudo, Guccio Gucci S.P.A. v Cosimo Gucci and Richemont International S.A. v Da Vinci Collections (HK) Limited. One of her cases Tsit Wing (Hong Kong) Company Limited v TWG Tea Company Pte Ltd. which succeeded at the Court of Final Appeal was voted by Managing IP Magazine as “Hong Kong IP case of the Year 2013”.

Charmaine advises on all aspects of commercial IP, including the structure and documentation of complex commercial transactions, licensing, franchising, distribution, cobranding as well as IT, technology, media, entertainment and advertising agreements. She has also successfully assisted many clients in investigations by and appeals against the Privacy Commissioner, requests for data by data subjects, police and other law enforcement authorities, as well as handling data breach incidence to minimise damage, penalties and other impact to companies. Charmaine represents many of the world’s leading brands, advertising agencies, entertainment businesses, ISPs and content providers in relation to a wide range of innovative IP or internet issues. Charmaine has won many awards and accolades and some of which include:

 Euromoney Legal Media Group’s Asia Women in Business Law Awards – “Best in IP Litigation in Asia” (2013 & 2018-2019)
 Legal 500 – Tier 1 Leading IP Individual in Hong Kong (2016-2020)
 Chambers & Partners – Band 1 Leading IP Individual in China (2017-2020)
 Managing IP – World’s Top 250 Women in IP (2016-2019) and Trade mark star in Hong Kong (2015-2020)
 World Trademark Review 1000 – Top Tier Individual in Enforcement and Litigation in Hong Kong (2016-2020) and WTR Global Leaders in Hong Kong (2020)
 IAM Patent 1000 – Top Tier Individual in Patent Litigation (2018-2020)

- Professor, Department of Electronic & Computer Engineering, HKUST
- Founder, Automation Technology Centre and Robotics Institute, HKUST
- Chairman, Googol Technology Limited
- Chairman, Da-Jiang Innovations Science and Technology Company Limited (DJI)
- Chairman, Xbot Park, Songshan Lake, Guangdong
- Founder, Clear Water Bay Venture Capital, Hong Kong
- Chairman, Changsha Robox Institute Company Limited
- Co-founder, Hong Kong X-Tech Startup Platform
- Member, Committee on Innovation, Technology and Re-industrialisation, The Government of the HKSAR
- Chairman, Changsha Intelligent Driving Institute Limited
- Director, Lok Ma Chau Loop Science and Technology Park

In 1978, he was admitted into the Central-South Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. In 1979, he was the first batch of undergraduates after China’s reform and opening up to be sent under a state scholarship to study at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, USA. In 1983, he was awarded a double Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and economics. In 1986 and 1989, he was respectively awarded a Master’s degree in mathematics and Master’s and Doctor’s degrees in electrical engineering and computer science at the University of California Berkeley. In 1989, he joined the AI Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a researcher. In 1990, he was an assistant professor in the Computer Science Department of the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University. Since 1992, he has been a professor in the Department of Electronic & Computer Engineering at the Hong Kong Science and Technology University (HKUST).

Prof. Li’s main fields of research include robotics (operating theory of dexterous robotic hand, motion planning under nonholonomic constraints, differential geometric method of parallel robots and autonomous aircraft), motion control, mechanism and manufacturing science (workpiece positioning and inspection, and automation of the 3C industries). He has published over 200 papers in international core journals and conferences. He has also authored four monographs (one of which is used as the first textbook for graduate students in robotics). He is the originator of the important academic field of motion planning of robots under non-holonomic constraints, and his work has been widely adopted or cited by international peers. He was elected IEEE Fellow in 2017 and was the general chair of the 2011 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). In 2015, he presented a keynote speech at the ICRA and, in 2016, he gave a plenary talk at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). In 2019, he was accorded the IEEE Robotics and Automation Award, which was one of the most prestigious global awards in the engineering technology field. Prof. Li and Frank Wang, co-founder and CEO of DJI, are the first Chinese scholar/entrepreneur to receive this award.

Prof. Li has been adjunct professor, doctoral supervisor or Changjiang Scholar at various tertiary education institutions including the National University of Defense Technology; Shanghai Jiao Tong University; Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences; and Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT). He is instrumental in developing and nurturing leaders for the innovative technology industries by having founded the Department of Control Science and Engineering at the Shenzhen Graduate School of HIT; collaborated with the Guangdong University of Technology in establishing the Guangdong-Hong Kong Robotics Academy and helped Hunan University in founding the School of Robotics.

In 1999, Prof. Li founded China’s first motion control company—Googol Technology Limited—and took up the position of chairman of the board. Subsequently, together with his students, he founded DJI (the world’s most famous company in drones and drone cameras), Liqun Automation (which provides automation solutions for 3C industries) and ePropulsion (a producer of innovative electric boat motors). In 2009, he became the pioneer for Guangdong’s innovation team for motion control and advanced equipment. In 2014, he founded Clear Water Bay Venture Capital in Hong Kong as well as Xbot Park, Songshan Lake and Songshan Lake Robotics Institute in Guangdong. In doing so, he has propelled the development of the robotics industry and facilitated the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing sector in the Pearl River Delta Area. In 2015, he was appointed a member of the Commission on Strategic Development of the Hong Kong SAR Government. In 2016, he was a co-founder of the Hong Kong X-Tech Startup Platform to promote innovative entrepreneur culture in Hong Kong. In 2018, he was granted the InnoStars Award and the Leader of the Year Award under the Education/Professions/Technology & Innovation category. In 2019, he was the winner of the prestigious IEEE Robotics and Automation Award. In 2020, he was recognized as one of the Innovative Entrepreneurs and Advanced Model Figures on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the establishment of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone.

Andrew Liao is a Senior Counsel in Hong Kong specializing in intellectual property. Andrew was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1989, and had been appointed Deputy High Court Judge in 1990, and Recorder of the High Court in 2000-2002.

For years, apart from his professional practice, Andrew has continuously and actively participated in public service in matters concerning intellectual property in Hong Kong. As a member of the Law Reform Commission and its Copyright Sub-Committee, he was actively and closely involved in the reform of the copyright law, leading to the enactment of the Copyright Ordinance in 1997. He was the first Chairman of the Copyright Tribunal, and Convenor of the Hong Kong Bar’s Task Force on Intellectual Property. In 2001, Andrew was awarded the Silver Bauhinia Star by the Government for his contribution to the reform of intellectual property laws. He was Vice-Chairman of the Working Group on Intellectual Property Trading which recommended the promotion of arbitration and evaluative mediation for resolving intellectual property disputes, Chairman of the Steering Committee on Review of Intellectual Property Issues in the Innovation and Technology Sector, and Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Review of the Patent System which recommendation of establishing Hong Kong’s own original grant patent system has been implemented by the Government. He is also Contributing Editor of the High Court Patent Rules under Order 103 of the Hong Kong Civil Procedure.

For 12 years from 2002 to 2009 and 2012 to 2017, Andrew had served as a Non-Official Member of the Executive Council of the HKSAR. For his distinguished public service, he was awarded the Gold Bauhinia Star by the HKSAR Government in 2008.

Andrew has been actively promoting intellectual property, intellectual property trading, intellectual property arbitration and mediation, cultural and creative industries, innovation and technology in Hong Kong, and was the founder and organizer of the BIP Forum (Business of Intellectual Property Forum) as part of BODW (Business of Design Week) in Hong Kong from 2007 to 2011.

Lai Hung-chuan
Secretary-General, Guangzhou Development District Intellectual Property Association
Co-Chairman, Federation of Intellectual Property Services, Guangzhou Development Zone
Expert Bank of Rights Defense Assistance of Guangzhou Intellectual Property Rights Defense Assistance Center
Expert Committee on IP Financial Services of Guangzhou Development District
Expert Bank of Guangdong Intellectual Property Protection Association
Solicitor
Legislation Specialist Consultant, Guangzhou Municipal People’s Congress Standing Committee


Mr Lai has more than ten years of experiences in providing commercial legal services and is particularly well-grounded and well-experienced in IP- and technology-related projects. He participates in legislative consultation work with Guangzhou Municipal People’s Congress in non-litigation areas and has spoken in various summits as a specialist. He is the legal advisor for a lot of sizable enterprises and has participated in a number of corporate M&A and technological projects. In litigations, he has represented Nokia, Martell, Hong Kong Royal Furniture, Honeywell Lonon, Imetto and ScienChain in civil and commercial cases with significant social impacts.

Ms. Catherine Liu is currently the Research Director of Beijing EntGroup Century Data Technology Co., Ltd. She is a specialist with over 8 years of research and analysis experience in the film and television industry. Ms. Liu has extensive experience in providing strategic advice, market analysis, customer analysis, project management and implementation plan.

Ms Liu provided project analysis and evaluation services for nearly 100 entertainment projects, her clients include Hengdian Group, Wanda Cinemas, China Film Stellar Theater Chain, Huayi Brothers Media Corporation, Bona Film, Huace Film, China Huace TV, Youku Tudou, Tencent Video, LeTV, etc. Ms. Liu publishes more than 30 research reports a year to cover a wide range of topics in entertainment and cultural theme.

Mr. Kevin Lee Ka Tsun, Founder & CEO of Redspots Creative, has been contributing in the digital entertainment and media technology field for more than 15 years. Since he started his own business in 2007, he and his team have been developing latest media technologies and providing all-rounded media production services to the Asia markets. In 2009, he and his team established ‘miniV.tv’, the first 3G mobile interactive TV platform in Mainland China, which was later became a main business stream of a leading entertainment listed company in the market. He has also established ‘Maji TV’, the first 3D TV channel in Hong Kong partnering with Samsung and LG Smart TV platforms, and MOME TV, the leading transportation media in Macau. Redspots Creative has developed various proprietary AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) technologies and served numerous clients in different countries and regions, including international brands like KFC, AIA, KPMG, Bank of New York Mellon, United Nations Foundations, etc.

With his extending knowledge in media technology, he has developed a ‘Live Animation Production System’ (aka ‘Virtual Idol System’), where users can create high quality animation contents in a real time manner. The Virtual Idol System won the ‘Digital Entertainment Interactive Design Gold Award’, ‘Digital Entertainment Grand Award’ and ‘Award of the Year’ in the most prestigous and renowned technology award in Hong Kong: The HKICT Award 2019. Redspots was also selected by Deloitte, the Big 4 accounting firm, as the ‘Hong Kong Technology Rising Star’ of 2019. In 2020, Kevin is awarded the ‘Greater Bay Area Outstanding Entrepreneur – Best Innovative Technology Award’.

Ms. Lau is an IP partner at Deacons, and she is dual-qualified in Hong Kong and California. She serves as a council member of the Hong Kong Institute of Trade Mark Practitioners, for which she also served as the President between 2009 and 2011. Ms. Lau specialises in the protection of international and regional trade mark portfolios of well-known brands in finance, telecommunications, consumer products, luxury goods, and pharmaceuticals. She has extensive experience in conducting trade mark audits and in advising on brand management. Ms. Lau’s practice also includes advising on commercial transactions, and complex trade mark disputes and negotiations.

Dr. Lui, President of Eagle IP Group, has been practicing in the patent field for more than 20 years. Beside her own life science specialization, Jackie specializes in cross-jurisdiction patent prosecution, and has been involved in advising Fortune 500 companies and HK/Nasdaq listed companies on IP-related matters including strategic planning, patent drafting and prosecution, portfolio management, due diligence and enforcement worldwide. She has assisted several clients in building patent portfolios for listing on the US, UK, and HK stock market. Dr. Lui is also the founding and current President of The Hong Kong Institute of Patent Practitioners Limited (HIPP).

Ms. Leung is a solicitor and consultant of David Lo & Partners. She has been a legal practitioner for more than 30 years, advising both local and multinational companies on the full spectrum of both contentious and non-contentious intellectual property and information technology work, including but not limited to mergers, acquisition and commercialization of IP assets, internal IP audits, pre-IPO due diligence, joint ventures, research collaboration, licensing, franchising and distribution etc. She assists clients to establish brand management and protection programs and provides them with strategy and advice on regional and cross border enforcement of their IP rights on all levels, litigating on copyright, trademark, design and patent disputes.

Yahong Li, JSD (Stanford), is an Associate Professor and Director of the LLM Program in Technology and IP Law at HKU Department of Law, and Associate Director (IP) at HKU Technology Transfer Office.

She specializes in IP law with a focus on cross-disciplinary study of IP, culture and technological innovation. She is the author/editor of Patents and Innovation in Mainland China and Hong Kong: Two Systems in One Country Compared (CUP, 2017), Copyright, Internet and the Balance of Rights (HKU Press, 2016), Imitation to Innovation in China: The Role of Patents in Biotech and Pharmaceutical Industries (EE, 2010), and International and Comparative Intellectual Property: Law, Policy and Practice (2nd edition) (LexisNexis, 2021), and published in top journals including IIC, LIT, QMJIP, Cardozo AELJl, and UPenn JIL. She is a recipient of the faculty research output prizes, and HKU-Cambridge Visiting Fellowship and HKU-Melbourne U. honorary fellowship, and has visited, delivered public lectures and taught courses at Harvard, Max Planck, WIPO, CREATe Center of Glasgow U. Santa Clara U., SMU, PKU and Zhejiang U. She has spoken at more than 100 international conferences, and was appointed an Honorary Professor of Jinan University

She is a member of Executive Committee of the ATRIP, a council member of the China IP Law Association, an honorary advisor of the Hong Kong Institute of Patent Attorneys, a Global Network Council Representative of Hong Kong’s Creative Commons, and a Scientific Member of Canadian Institute for International Law Expertise. She sits in the Expert Committees of the following institutions: Peking University Great Bay Area IP Institute, the China National Copyright Trading Platform, and IP Utilization and Protection of Guangzhou ETDZ.

She has supervised more than 15 PhD students, and teaches the courses of Copyright and Creativity, International and Comparative IP Law, and IP, Innovation and Development.

Li Yao joined China Daily in 2010 as a reporter based at the Beijing headquarters. She relocated to Hong Kong in 2013 as a reporter and then editor for the Hong Kong edition’s award-winning Focus section. She is now News Editor of China Daily Hong Kong.

Ms. Li has become an agent of change, leading the team that pioneers and implements the digital transformation of China Daily Hong Kong. Through this continuing transformation, she helps guide the formerly print-oriented operations toward greater emphasis on the era of digital publishing. This new era employs new skills and standards, bringing China Daily Hong Kong new features, expanded content and new readers in a highly competitive market.

Ms. Li takes charge of China Daily Hong Kong’s coverage of critical issues, as part of the company’s commitments to serving the community through impactful journalism. Since 2015, she has led China Daily Hong Kong’s Data Journalism team that embraces data analysis and visualization, offering fresh insights to readers and encouraging meaningful action by stakeholders.

Ms. Li has covered extensive issues concerning the symbiosis between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong. She holds a Master’s Degree from the School of International Relations and Public Affairs, Fudan University.

Michael Lin (B.A. Biochemistry from U.C. Berkeley; J.D. from Boston University; Ohio Bar; USPTO Bar) was such a terrible bench chemist that he had to become a lawyer. Michael worked at Procter & Gamble Japan (1997-2007), and P&G Beijing (2007-10). Before leaving P&G, Michael managed the pan-Asia patent matters for Oral Care, Pet Care, Snacks & Beverages, and Fabric and Home Care business units, and was the head of the China IP group.

Since end-2010, Michael has led Marks&Clerk’s China/HK Chem-BioSciences group, handling patent preparation & prosecution, opinion work and client counseling, with an expertise in global IP strategies and holistic protection. Michael believes that IP is often an underutilized business tool and desires to see businesses better leverage their IP for greater growth and success.

Michael is a board member of IIPCC (www.iipcc.org), the Children’s Cancer Therapy Development Institute (www.cc-tdi.org), and IBSA HK (www.theibsa.org), a council member and Secretary of LES China-Hong Kong, and an INTIPSA Fellow, etc. Michael is listed in IAM’s Patent 1000 (2012-20), MIP’s IP Stars (2014-20), IAM’s Strategy 300 (2015-20), and other publications. Michael publishes articles, speaks at schools and conventions, and actively mentors students, entrepreneurs, and others.

For more information, please see: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-lin-b37b333/

Mr. Lo possesses over 15 years of experience in credit risk management, retail banking, investment banking and global markets. With in-depth knowledge in infrastructure of market research, online transactions and system design, he was responsible for market data system, trading system and network design for multinational financial corporate.

Charles has an international upbringing. He was born in Hong Kong, raised in Vancouver and had his higher education in Tokyo and San Francisco. His education focuses on industrial design and web design new media, he is devoted to combining his knowledge of product development into software and user experience, designing not only a good product but also the content within. His expertise allows him to be constantly curious and passionate about creating innovative solutions and insightful experiences for the world.

His passion for creation was inspired by his 50-year old family business in Hong Kong. Starting from his grandfather and continued by his father, the traditional business is a toy development, production and trading company. The family has been creating products that have brought inspiration and joy to people everywhere.

In 2016, he established his first team of young but professional developers, designers, content makers and researchers in Manila, Philippines and Taipei, Taiwan. When he is able to recruit a group of young talents, it is possible to develop his ideas and fulfil his ambitions.

Mrs Carrie Lam joined the Administrative Service of the Hong Kong Government in August 1980 and rose to the rank of Administrative Officer Staff Grade A1 in September 2006. She became a Principal Official on July 1, 2007 when she was appointed Secretary for Development. She was appointed Chief Secretary for Administration on July 1, 2012.

Before assuming the post of the Chief Executive, Mrs Lam had served the public for more than 36 years in 20 public service positions including Director of Social Welfare, Permanent Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands (Planning and Lands), Director-General of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London, Permanent Secretary for Home Affairs, Secretary for Development and Chief Secretary for Administration.

Mrs Lam was elected as the Fifth-Term Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on March 26, 2017, and was officially appointed to this position by the Central People’s Government on March 31, 2017 to assume office on July 1, 2017.

Mrs Lam is married and has two sons.

Jason is an innovator at heart with a mission to drive the growth of companies through the power of intellectual property. He is an advocate of the active utilisation of intangible assets and is an expert in developing brand and growth strategies for companies through global IP strategies, IP monetisation, IP risk aversions, technology IP innovations and anchoring intellectual property to business strategies.

Previously, Jason was Head of Panasonic’s IP group (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) for 16 years. He then founded Piece Future, an Asian IP investment bank. Piece Future serves as a vital key in the IP innovation ecosystem, providing IP-driven business solutions to multinationals and start-ups. Jason has formulated a unique in-house dynamic market patent valuation system, Valuation360, which evaluates market, technology and legal potentials. This system helps multinationals to manage and commercialise challenging portfolios. The initiative has helped his clients to uncover numerous hidden gems in their patent portfolios and has generated manifold returns from their investments.

Jason has created the world’s first IP innovation start-up competition, IPHatch, which runs in Singapore, Hong Kong and is expanding fast in Asia. Over the past two years, Piece Future has invested in over 20 start-ups, with many more coming up through the IPHatch investment pipeline. Together with two renowned bankers, Jason also established an IP-focused venture capital firm, which has been granted a licence by the Monetary Authority of Singapore to invest in promising companies to accelerate their growth. As such, Piece Future encompasses the IP innovation ecosystem, including its innovation platform IPHatch, venture capital firm, start-up incubator and its co-working space, offering connections with many supporting partners and organisations in the start-up landscape.

Jason is also an activist for IP commercialisation and innovation. He is Director of the International IP Commercialisation Council Singapore, Executive Adviser for Asia to the United Kingdom’s Institute of Innovation Knowledge Exchange, Managing Partner of i2P Ventures (a start-up incubator) and Partner of True Vine Capital Partners Pte Ltd.

Yoshinori Nakagawa is an IP Specialist at the Innovation Promotion Sector of Panasonic Corporation. Since joining the company in 2004 and throughout his career, Mr. Nakagawa has actively monetized IP for Panasonic through licenses and other transactions in the field of semiconductor, display, and wireless communication devices. Currently, in pursuit of creative business solutions by utilizing Panasonic’s wide range of IP, Mr. Nakagawa leverages his experience and is vigorously acquiring wide range of knowledge of advanced technologies from Bio to IT.

Judge Mao joined SPC in Feb, 2005, and was appointed as Judge in Aug, 2011. Judge Mao had worked at Criminal Tribunal of the Supreme People’s Court for 10 years, mainly focused on criminal trial. In Aug，2017, Judge Mao was appointed as senior judge of Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme People’s Court, mainly dealing with IP and antitrust cases.

Judge Mao graduated from Renmin University of China Law School in 1999, with bachelor degree of law. In 2003 and 2006, Judge Mao received a master‘s degree of law and doctor’s degree of law from China University Of Political and Law.

John joined Lenovo in 2019 and currently serves as Vice President, Deputy General Counsel & Chief Intellectual Property Officer.

John started his legal career at several prominent law firms in New York and DC. He then worked at Microsoft for 10 years primarily leading teams handling a wide variety of licensing, litigation support, and other IP transactional related matters, but for two years he also served in a broader role for Microsoft Research in EMEA where he drafted multi-party agreements with companies, universities, governments and research organizations. John joined Uber in 2017 to lead the IP team, but over time his responsibilities have also included building multiple client- facing product teams and serving as acting lead the Privacy legal team.

John holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Rice University and a Juris Doctor degree from The George Washington University Law School.

Alex is currently leading Tencent’s healthcare business. Tencent has already developed multiple products such as the wechat mini-app “Tencent Healthcare”, electronic health insurance and healthcare card, AIMIS (AI enabled clinical decision support system for medical images), Oncology Assistant (AI enabled triaging system to better match cancer patients to oncologists).

Alex first started his career as a medical doctor where he was the chief resident at Middlemore Hospital in Auckland, New Zealand. He then moved to the US to become a strategy consultant with McKinsey & Company after completing the Master of Public Health at Harvard. After 9 years at McKinsey between US and China, where he co-led the Greater China Healthcare Practice, he joined the Gates Foundation as the deputy director of the China Country Office, responsible for the health and innovation portfolio.

He is also serving as an advisor to WHO’s Digital Health Technical Advisory Group, and an honorary associate professor at University of Hong Kong’s Faculty of Medicine.

Aldous Ng is the Co-founder and CEO of CU Coding Limited. Aldous has over 20 years of experience being a serial technology entrepreneur with successful exits in Greater China region. In addition to be seasoned businessman, Aldous was a distinguished scholar and was named the Shaw College Distinguished Alumnus and the Engineering Faculty Distinguished Alumnus of CUHK in 2019 and 2017 respectively. His knowledge and expertise was highly acclaimed to be able to lead communities and advance global technological development. Aldous is currently the President of The International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners (IAMCP) in the GCR Chapter. He was the Vice President of Asian-Oceanian Computing Industry Organization (ASOCIO) in 2008-2010, and the Chairman of The Information and Software Industry Association (ISIA) in 2006-2009.

Arata is a Japanese entrepreneur. He founded Borderless Inc. in 2012 and launched the CrossHelmet project on Kickstarter and Indiegogo in 2017. The project raised $500K+ in total from backers worldwide. He also brought $1.5M in private financing to the project. Prior to starting Borderless Inc., he was an industrial designer at GK Design Group, top design firm in Japan and received RedDot Design Award and iF Design Award in 2014, through his motorcycle design; MT-09 (Yamaha). Arata holds a BA in design from Tokyo University of the Arts.

As CIPO and Head of IPR & Licensing at Ericsson since 2019, Christina Petersson is responsible for Ericsson’s patent development and patent licensing worldwide. Ericsson is one of the leading providers of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to service providers, investing heavily in R&D as a leading contributor to open standards. With more than 54,000 granted patents, Ericsson has the industry’s leading patent portfolio, covering 2G, 3G, 4G and now 5G cellular standards.

Ms Petersson’s previous role was Vice President and Head of IPR Legal Affairs at Ericsson. In this role, which she held since 2011, Ms Petersson had an active role in licensing negotiations and has been responsible for concluding license agreements with the vast majority of Ericsson’s more than 100 licensees.

Ms Petersson has worked at Ericsson since 1998 when she started her career as a Trademark Attorney. She has a Master of Law, LL.M. from Uppsala University, Sweden.

Ms Mimi Rankin is an Associate General Counsel at the Beijing Innovation Center of Procter & Gamble Company. She has a bachelor’s degree in Analytical Chemistry, a master degree in Bioinformatics and is admitted to practice law in the States of North Carolina and California. Mimi mainly handles IP strategy development and implementation for P&G’s Asia business, including patent drafting and prosecution, freedom-to-operate assessments, enforcement/litigation, and IP-related transactions.

In her IP-related transactions role, Mimi works closely with R&D to secure and protect P&G’s interests in IP that is created through open innovations and collaborations with external parties under P&G’s Connect+Develop program, which is one of the world’s first and most successful global corporate Open Innovation programs (for more information, please see: https://www.pgconnectdevelop.com/what-is-connect-develop/).

Chris is a Senior Associate in the Washington, D.C. office of the U.S. law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, where he serves as trusted outside counsel to clients with wide ranging IP needs. In particular, Chris represents Asia-based clients in complex U.S. patent infringement lawsuits as well as technical proceedings at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. In addition to his litigation practice, Chris advises clients on issues arising in IP-related transactions through the lens of an experienced litigator.

Previously, Chris served as in-house counsel at Panasonic’s IP division in Osaka, Japan. In that role, he advised business managers on negotiating technology and license agreements and provided guidance on various legal issues, such as indemnification, ownership rights arising from joint development efforts, non-assertion provisions, and open source software. Chris has leveraged his corporate and law firm experience to develop an appreciation of IP strategy and monetization. Most recently, Chris has had the opportunity to become an advisor to and a private investor in startups.

Dr. SHEN is an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Winner of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, Chief Scientist of the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program).

Dr. SHEN received his Ph.D. Degree from Dalian University of Technology in 1990, and started his career in Zhengzhou University of Technology in August of the same year. He was appointed as professor and entitled as an expert who enjoys the state council special allowances in 1993. In 1994, he was honored as “National Middle-aged and Young Expert making Outstanding Contribution”. In 1996, he was entitled as Ph.D. Supervisor and selected into the first batch of Talents Project of China. Dr. SHEN was appointed as Vice President of Zhengzhou University of Technology in February 1997, Executive Vice President of Zhengzhou University in July 2000, and President of Zhengzhou University in February 2003. Dr. SHEN was elected as an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2009 and appointed as President of Dalian University of Technology in August 2012. Dr. SHEN has served as Commissioner of China National Intellectual Administration of China, (CNIPA) since December 2013. In March 2018, Dr. SHEN was appointed as member of the CPC Leading Group of the State Administration for Market Regulation of China (SAMR) and Commissioner and Deputy Secretary of CPC Leading Group of CNIPA. In December 2018, Dr. SHEN was appointed as member of the CPC Leading Group of the SAMR and Commissioner and Secretary of CPC Leading Group of CNIPA. Dr. Shen is also a delegate of the 17th, 18th and 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), an Alternate Member of the CPC Central Committee and a delegate of the 10th National People’s Congress.

Thomas So is a partner of Mayer Brown. He advises on shareholders disputes, property and investments litigation and disputes and PRC-related arbitration and disputes.

Thomas is on a number of panel of arbitrators in Asia and is also a solicitor-advocate with rights to appear in the higher courts in Hong Kong. He holds the degrees of LLB from the University of Hull (1985), LLM from the University of Hong Kong (1993), LLB from the China University of Political Science and Law (1997) and Doctor of Laws from Tsinghua University Beijing (2005).

He is a PRC qualified lawyer since 2009 and also a China-Appointed Attesting Officer (appointed by the Ministry of Justice of PRC) and member of The National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. He was the President of the Law Society of Hong Kong (June 2016 – June 2018). He is currently Chairman of the Belt and Road Committee of the Law Society of Hong Kong.

Dr Martin Szeto is the Chief Operating Officer at the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI). He has more than 26 years of experience in international business development, business strategies, technology transfer and product marketing, in the public, private and commercial sectors, across the Asia-Pacific region.

He previously was the Managing Director of Microban International (Asia), a US-based leading bio-chemical company, Deputy Managing Director at Groz-Beckert KG (SAL) in addition to other executive positions at multiple international companies.

Dr Szeto holds a Doctor of Business Administration degree from Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where he was also a guest lecturer on the university’s Master of Corporate Governance Degree programme. He holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Northeast Louisiana University. His professional memberships and affiliations include the Hong Kong Institute of Directors and the Academy of Management USA.

A Hong Kong native, Dr Szeto is fluent in English, Cantonese and Mandarin and takes keen interest in global economic affairs, innovation trends, and commercialisation of technologies.

Yancey Strickler is a writer and entrepreneur. He is the cofounder and former CEO of Kickstarter, the author of This Could Be Our Future: A Manifesto for a More Generous World, and the creator of Bentoism. Yancey is a Distinguished Fellow at the Drucker Institute, a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People and Fortune’s 40 under 40. He’s spoken at MIT, Stanford, the London School of Economics, the Museum of Modern Art, the Sundance and Tribeca Film Festivals, Web Summit, and startups, nonprofits, and schools around the world. Yancey cofounded the artist resource The Creative Independent, the record label eMusic Selects, and an audio app called Micd. He coaches CEOs, activists, and artists, and advises and invests in startups like Ampled, Hopin, and Wren. Yancey began his career as a music critic in New York City, writing for Pitchfork, Spin, and The Village Voice, and grew up on a farm in Clover Hollow, Virginia. The London Spectator called him "one of the least obnoxious tech evangelists ever."

Ms Relena Sei graduated from New York University and completed her Juris Doctor at Harvard Law School. Relena served as the Interim Chief Operating Officer of New York Silent Models LLC prior to joining Latham and Watkins, one of the world's leading law firms. Relena is experienced in mergers and acquisition, initial public offerings and debt offerings. She is also experienced in real estate, and is a partner at Lionpride, a real estate developer in the Philippines focused on mixed-use high-rise residential projects. Relena is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Jumpstart Media Limited, which is a major startup-ecosystem builder in Hong Kong. Jumpstart's mission is to "Make Innovation Matter".

Mr Sze was born in Fujian, China. He emmigrated to Hong Kong and continued his study when he was around 10 years old. He joined Hong Kong comics and publishing industry when he was 16 years old, and has engaged in ACG industry for 30 years. Mr Sze currently as the founder and chairman of Gameone Holdings Limited(8282.HK), Chairman of Hong Kong Game Industry Association, founding member of Hong Kong Comics and Animation Federation, columnist of Ming Pao, author of [港漫回憶錄], former committee of Create HK and animation director of [League of Gods] and [西行紀].

Winnie Tam SBS, SC, JP is a barrister, international arbitrator and mediator practicing from Des Voeux Chambers in Hong Kong. Winnie served as Chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association between 2015 to 2017. She is also an overseas member of the London barristers’ chambers 8 New Square, and holds qualification to practice in Singapore and Australian Capital Territory. Her practice area is commercial dispute resolution and international arbitration, with particular expertise in intellectual property. Apart from running a solid IP and commercial practice as a barrister-advocate, Winnie is rapidly building a reputation as a sought-after arbitrator who is fully bilingual. She has been appointed in over a dozen international commercial arbitrations under UNCITRAL, HKIAC, ICC and CIETAC rules as president of the tribunal and as party-appointed arbitrator. She is a WIPO panel mediator, a CEDR-accredited mediator, a panel mediator on Mainland-Hong Kong Investment Disputes under CEPA, a JAMS panel mediator, and a JAMS/SCMC Joint Panel Mediator. Well recognized as a luminary, Kenny Wong has received over 120 awards as a leading IP practitioner in Hong Kong and China. Besides his busy practice, Kenny is also a seasoned and popular lecturer and is amongst the first to help design and provide Continuing Professional Development courses. He is currently as an Adjunct Professor of the University of Hong Kong and has taught courses on Cybercrime and Intellectual Property. Since 2018, he and an in-house counsel of a leading broadcaster have designed and co-taught a new Entertainment Law course for the university. In addition to teaching, he has delivered over 140 lectures, seminars and presentations to judges, IP enforcement officers, lawyers, enterprises, and members of the public on IP and IT subjects in Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, the Philippines, and the United States. Kenny publishes extensively too. He co-authored Intellectual Property Law and Practice in Hong Kong, a recommended text by the three universities in Hong Kong which offer IP courses. He is also the co-author of the IP chapters in the tort reference book Tort Law & Practice in Hong Kong. His two popular booklets on IP Licensing and Due Diligence are jointly published by the Hong Kong Government and the Law Society of Hong Kong for free distribution. Kenny serves on a number of professional committees and provides pro bono legal services to a few charities in Hong Kong. He is the chairman of the IP Committee of the Law Society of Hong Kong which is always busy reviewing and making recommendations on the IP laws and practice in Hong Kong. He is an honorary legal adviser of Wai Yin Association - a charitable organisation set up by Miss Hong Kongs, an executive committee member of First Initiative Foundation - a charity which promotes and supports the arts, music and designs of Hong Kong, and the honorary legal adviser of Hear Talk Foundation which serves under-privilege community especially children and the elderly in Hong Kong and Mainland China with hearing impairment and speech disorders. He is the Chairman of the Appeal Panel of the Urban Renewal Authority and a member of the appeal panels of the Town Planning Board. He also serves as the Deputy Chairman of the Copyright Tribunal. Ms. Tam was appointed “Senior Counsel” in 2006, and since 2016 a Recorder of the Court of First Instance of the High Court of HKSAR. Ms. Tam currently chairs the Hong Kong Bar Association’s Committee on Intellectual Property, is a member of the Appointments Committee of the HKIAC and the Law Reform Commission. Ms Tam has been appointed the Chairman of the Communications Authority Since 2018.

Mr. Tong has been practicing law since 1990. He is the Managing Partner of Robin Bridge & John Liu. Mr. Tong’s practice includes assisting clients on, inter alia, technology transfer and commercialization. He has also supervised and conducted numerous trade mark, copyright and patent proceedings in Hong Kong, China, the US, Europe and Australia. Mr. Tong is appointed as a member of the Board of Directors of the Government-founded Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute Company Limited (ASTRI) on 21 October 2020. He was also the Deputy Chairman of the Copyright Tribunal of the Hong Kong Government, and has successfully completed the maximum 6-year term on 30 November 2017.

Daren Tang, a national of Singapore, began his six-year mandate as Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on October 1, 2020. Prior to his appointment as WIPO Director General, he served as Chief Executive of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS), driving the strategic transformation of IPOS in support of Singapore’s innovation-based economy.

Between 1997 and 2012, before joining IPOS, Daren Tang held different legal positions within the Attorney-General’s Chambers and the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Singapore. In 2016, he received the Public Administration Medal from the Prime Minister's Office Singapore for outstanding efficiency and competence in the service of his country.

Daren Tang is a graduate of the National University of Singapore (Bachelor of Law, Honors) and the Georgetown University Law Center (Master of Laws, Distinction). He also attended the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. He is fluent in English and Chinese.

Ir. Dr. Tan is an entrepreneur, an IP attorney, an engineer, a research scientist, an inventor and a university senior administrator all rolled in one. He started his career in academia before embarking to successfully lead his own technology start-up. Ir. Dr. Tan has a number of patents to his name. He then returned to academia to further his career as a well-published Professor in engineering and technology, both in Hong Kong and Australia. Ir. Dr. Tan is a Senior Member of IEEE and a Member of Engineers Australia. He is also a registered Australian Trade Marks attorney and an often-referenced patent consultant. Ir. Dr. Tan is also a Certified Patent Valuation Analyst and consults for venture capital firms.

Annie joined the Association in 2000 and became its Deputy Secretary General in 2017.

Annie has been a Partner at Deacons since 2001. She is currently the Co-Head of the IP Department and Head of China IP Practice Group of the firm, managing the IP team in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai offices.

Annie advises all aspects of intellectual property work and in particular, on the unique challenges arising from doing business in China. Annie has advised many major Hong Kong and multi-national companies on strategic issues relating to the protection, enforcement and commercial exploitation of IPRs including managing complex intellectual property portfolios and she represents some of the world’s leading companies in the luxury goods, cosmetic, pharmaceutical, entertainment, fashion and electronics industries.

Annie has advised extensively on the IP aspects of acquisition and restructuring of businesses including technology transfer, licensing and cooperation issues, technology development and improvement. Annie also specialises in Internet-related regulations and domain name disputes.

Annie has written numerous articles for publications such as The Journal of World Intellectual Property and China Law and Practice. She has spoken for international conferences such as universities, Inter-Pacific Bar Association and International Trademark Association. She has been a part time lecturer for the Faculty of Law, University of Hong Kong.

Annie has been acknowledged as a Leading Lawyer in the area of Intellectual Property in the Chambers Global - The World’s Leading Lawyers, a Leading Individual in the area of Intellectual Property in Hong Kong by the Chambers Asia and a leading lawyer in the area of Trade Marks in the Who’s Who Legal - The International Who’s Who of Trademark Lawyers.

Jari Vaario, Head of Asia Patent Transactions & External Alliances, of Nokia, is today responsible for patent transactions and related technology cooperation in Asia. Earlier he was heading licensing and government affairs in Asia, and heading globally Nokia’s IP matters at standardization organizations.

He has worked in China from 2001 to 2005 responsible for R&D, technology, standardization, and intellectual property rights as CTO of Nokia China. Before China he was establishing Nokia Research Center in Tokyo, and CTO of Nokia Venture Organization activity.

He received his Master of Science degree from Helsinki University of Technology in 1985 and PhD from the University of Tokyo in 1994.  Before joining Nokia Japan in May 1998, he spent several years in academia, serving as a full professor at a national university in Japan.

Since joining Louis Vuitton's Global Intellectual Property Department in 2009 Mayank is responsible for Louis Vuitton, Berluti and FENDI’s intellectual property matters in Asia Pacific & China.

Before joining the LVMH Group, he worked at Daimler AG in various positions in Germany, India and PRC.

Beat Weibel was born in 1966. He studied Electrical Engineering at the ETH in Zurich and was Trainee Patent Attorney with ABB from 1991 until 1995. In 1995 he qualified as European Patent Attorney. He was head of Corporate IP of Georg Fischer AG from 1998 until 2000, head of the IP Department of ABB Switzerland from 2000 until 2007, and Chief IP Counsel of ABB Ltd. from 2007 until 2012. Since 2013 he is the head of the Corporate Intellectual Property Department of Siemens AG. He was lecturer on patent law at ETH Zurich for many years and is giving lectures at the University of Applied Science Zurich, as well as guest lectures at the Technical University of Munich. Beat Weibel teaches in preparation courses for the Swiss patent attorney qualifying examination, he regularly publishes and speaks on actual topics in the intellectual property law. He is President of the VPP (German Association of Patent Attorneys) and the FEMIPI (European Federation of Intellectual Property Agents in Industry).

Mr. Wang has been designated as a National Distinguished Expert in China. He is an accomplished technology expert in the fields of internet streaming media, big data and content identification with machine learning. He is also a well-known international business leader in the film and television industry as well as copyrights management and monetization. The innovative technology architecture and business model he advocated have significant impact on direct-to-consumer video distribution and online content protection in the new era of digital economy. Vobile was a winner of the 69th annual Technology and Engineering Emmy Awards for its innovation excellence in developing video identification technology to protect content value and copyright.

Mr. Wang received a Bachelor’s degree in engineering from Zhejiang University in China, and a Master of Science degree from the University of Florida in USA.

Mr. Wang is Vice Chairman of the Science and Innovation Committee of Zheshang General Association. He is Director of the Zhejiang University-Vobile Joint Research Center for Big Data and Director of the Research Center for Media Big Data Technology Applications at Zhejiang University Industrial Technology Research Institute located in Guangzhou. He is also a mentor of MBA graduate student in the School of Management at Zhejiang University. He is a national board member of Zhejiang University Alumni Association and UF Alumni Association.

Mr Pan Wong is Board of Governors and Co-founder of the International IP Commercialization Council HK (GBA) Chapter.

Pan was the Head for South East Asia and Hong Kong business for CPA Global (a top IP solution company that handles over 60% of global IP renewal). His responsibilities included advising IP professionals and IP lawyers on matters in IP management strategies and provide support to law firms and corporations throughout the whole IP lifecycle.

Pan has two decades of experience in IT security and IP working in industry leading companies. He frequently represents companies speaking in various seminars and workshops.

Prior to IIPCC (GBA) HK, he has volunteered in various Hong Kong originated NGOs and associations in the director roles, helping on fund raising and organizing events for members since 2003. Pan is a Hong Kong native and a graduate of Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.

Well recognized as a luminary, Kenny Wong has received over 120 awards as a leading IP practitioner in Hong Kong and China.

Besides his busy practice, Kenny is also a seasoned and popular lecturer and is amongst the first to help design and provide Continuing Professional Development courses. He is currently as an Adjunct Professor of the University of Hong Kong and has taught courses on Cybercrime and Intellectual Property. Since 2018, he and an in-house counsel of a leading broadcaster have designed and co-taught a new Entertainment Law course for the university. In addition to teaching, he has delivered over 140 lectures, seminars and presentations to judges, IP enforcement officers, lawyers, enterprises, and members of the public on IP and IT subjects in Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, the Philippines, and the United States.

Kenny publishes extensively too. He co-authored Intellectual Property Law and Practice in Hong Kong, a recommended text by the three universities in Hong Kong which offer IP courses. He is also the co-author of the IP chapters in the tort reference book Tort Law & Practice in Hong Kong. His two popular booklets on IP Licensing and Due Diligence are jointly published by the Hong Kong Government and the Law Society of Hong Kong for free distribution.

Kenny serves on a number of professional committees and provides pro bono legal services to a few charities in Hong Kong. He is the chairman of the IP Committee of the Law Society of Hong Kong which is always busy reviewing and making recommendations on the IP laws and practice in Hong Kong. He is an honorary legal adviser of Wai Yin Association - a charitable organisation set up by Miss Hong Kongs, an executive committee member of First Initiative Foundation - a charity which promotes and supports the arts, music and designs of Hong Kong, and the honorary legal adviser of Hear Talk Foundation which serves under-privilege community especially children and the elderly in Hong Kong and Mainland China with hearing impairment and speech disorders. He is the Chairman of the Appeal Panel of the Urban Renewal Authority and a member of the appeal panels of the Town Planning Board. He also serves as the Deputy Chairman of the Copyright Tribunal.

Stephanie has been instructed in a wide range of IP matters, disputes, litigations, arbitration, and registry proceedings (including trade mark, copyright, patent, registered design, breach of confidence etc.). She is currently serving as a Member of the Committee on Intellectual Property Law and the Committee on Competition Law.

Stephanie was admitted to the University of Hong Kong through the Early Admission Scheme, where she graduated with First Class and Dean’s List Honours for both her B.B.A.(Law) and LL.B. degrees. She was also a Visiting Student at the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, where she completed the one-year undergraduate programme with First Class results. Following her undergraduate studies, she went on to obtain an LL.M. at the University of Cambridge, and graduated with a First in Intellectual Property law.

Stephanie accepts instructions for both advocacy and advisory work and has been instructed on matters covering a wide range of areas of law. Her practice covers general Civil, Commercial, Intellectual Property, Competition, Chancery, Public law and Arbitration.

Stephanie is also a Lecturer at the Department of Law of the University of Hong Kong.

Nelson is the Head of Legal at Lam Soon Hong Kong Group (“Lam Soon”, Stock Code: 411) who oversees its team of legal professionals with regard to all aspects of Lam Soon’s operations. Lam Soon was founded in Singapore in the 1930s and began its operations in Hong Kong in 1961. Since then it has continued to feature itself as a major player in the manufacture and distribution of a wide range of food products including flour, edible oils, vegetable fats, as well as household cleaning products.

Nelson joined Lam Soon after having worked as Legal Counsel of a private family office ranked 23rd in 2017 Asia’s Richest Families by Forbes, advising the family on its commercial ventures and consolidation of its investment portfolios in Asia and Europe. Nelson also assisted the family in the establishment of a vocational training centre which aims at providing vocational opportunities for the youth in Shanghai, handling the family’s properties in Hong Kong and other complex projects. Before joining the said family office, Nelson worked in the Hong Kong office of a number of law firms as a full-service litigator regularly advising companies, directors, and shareholders in a wide variety of commercial and tortious disputes, as well as representing them to handle interviews and searches conducted by various governmental authorities ranging from the Commercial Crime Bureau of the Hong Kong Police, the Independent Commission Against Corruption and the Immigration Department.

Nelson is a member of the Law Society of Hong Kong and the Solicitors Regulation Authority in England and Wales.

Victor Wong has strong passion in education. He founded Bridge Academy in 2014, a school that provides Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) services for children of aged 2 and above with learning difficulties. More than 300 special education needs (SEN) students had received ABA services involving 10,000 learning tasks at Bridge Academy since 2014. Victor has also founded Bridge AI, a company using Artificial Intelligence (AI), big data and video and audio communication systems to support e-learning of SEN children. He is now collaborating with Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) in a project funded by the Hong Kong Innovative and Technology Bureau (ITB) to develop a distance learning education system that tailors the individual needs of the SEN students.

Dr. Claudia Xu is a leader in the strategic development and commercialisation of technology, with extensive commercial, academic and consulting experience in the Asia Pacific region. She joined HKSTP in 2018 as Chief Commercial Officer to accelerate knowledge transfer and drive innovation to commercialisation. She forges strategic partnerships with key players in mainland China and international markets to attract technology companies, world class research institutes and talent to the park, and builds collaborative networks with universities, industries, professional organisations and technology companies. Before joining HKSTP, Dr. Xu was the Director of Technology Transfer Center and Chief Executive Officer of HKUST R and D Corporation Limited at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology responsible for the University’s intellectual property management, patent portfolio development & licensing, academic-industrial collaboration, technology commercialisation and technology startup incubation, management of funding schemes supporting technology transfer and entrepreneurship. Prior to that, she worked for leading consulting firm McKinsey & Company Hong Kong, specialising in energy, chemicals and petrochemicals, and Bechtel Asia Pacific, focusing on the planning and development of large-scale infrastructure projects. Dr. Xu has a Bachelor of Engineering and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, and a Master of Engineering in Energy Technology.

Yi Zaicheng, Doctor of Law, Doctoral Supervisor and Associate Professor of faculty of Law of Macau University of Science and Technology, Director of Legal Practice Teaching Center, Secretary General of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Intellectual Property Law Alliance, President of Macao Intellectual Property Research Association, specializing in international law and intellectual property law (international protection of intellectual property rights), arbitrator of Guangzhou Arbitration Commission, Shenzhen International Arbitration Institute and Shenzhen International Arbitration Institute. Invited mediators of Guangdong Higher People's Court, Shenzhen Qianhai Court, Zhuhai Hengqin New District Court and Guangzhou Internet Court, part-time researcher of Intellectual Property Research Center of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (Key Base of Law of the Ministry of Education), special expert of Foreign Law Identification Center of East China University of Political Science and Law, special teaching expert of Shenzhen University Intellectual Property College, former Macao expert of legal expert group of Guangdong-Macao Cooperation Framework Agreement, and visiting studies at Chung Cheng University in Taiwan, Montclair State University in New Jersey, University of Coimbra, Portugal and Cambridge University, UK

Yang Xiaoxuan, Vice President of iQIYI, has begun her career in animation management and investment since 2011. She has produced many high-level original Chinese animation series including ‘Deer Squad’, ‘TUKTAKMAN’, ‘Beyond the Ocean’, ‘Are You OK’ and etc. Her latest works as the producer is the first virtual idol label in China: RiCHBOOM.

Professor Yongping Zheng is the Co-founder and Technical Advisor of Telefield Medical Imaging Limited, which was formed based on the team’s many years of R&D works on 3D ultrasound imaging. He received the BSc and MEng in Electronics and Information Engineering from the University of Science and Technology of China, and PhD degree in Biomedical Engineering from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) in 1997. After a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Windsor, Canada, he joined PolyU as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to Professor in 2008 and Chair Professor in 2019 respectively. He served as the Associate Director of the Research Institute of Innovative Products in PolyU from 2008 to 2010. He has been serving as the Founding Head of Biomedical Engineering during 2012-2020. Prof. Zheng has been appointed as Henry G. Leong Professor in Biomedical Engineering since July 2017. He is currently also the Director of Jockey Club Smart Ageing Hub.

Prof. Zheng’s main research interests include biomedical ultrasound instrumentation and smart aging technologies. He is a Senior Member of IEEE, a Fellow of Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HK), Secretary of World Association of Chinese Biomedical Engineers (2017-2019), the past Chair of Biomedical Engineering Division of HKIE and Honorary Advisor of Hong Kong Medical and Healthcare Device Industry Association (HMHDIA). He also serves as the President of Guangdong Hong Kong Macau Chapter of the International Society of Gerontechnology. He also serves as Associate Editor and Editorial Board Members for a number of leading journals in the field.

He has trained over 10 PhD and 8 MPhil students, and over 10 postdoctoral fellows, and currently supervisor of 10 research students. The total amount that he has been awarded is about HKD100M. He owns more than 50 patents, has published over 230 journal papers, and wrote a book “Measurement of Soft Tissue Elasticity In Vivo: Techniques and Applications”. A number of technologies invented by his team have been successfully commercialized, including Scolioscan (http://www.scolioscan.com), an ultrasound device to provide radiation-free assessment of scoliosis, installed for clinical use in many countries.

Hua is SVP of Engineering of WeRide, a leading L4 autonomous driving company committed to New Mobility in China.

Hua is leading the R&D engineer team of WeRide in China, responsible for full stack software and hardware solutions of L4 autonomous driving. Prior to WeRide, Hua was former chief architect of autonomous driving for UCAR USA. Previously he served at Microsoft Research Asia, Google and Siemens Research.

Hua got Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University, and has published more than 20 papers at conferences of CVPR, SIGGRAPH, TVCG, MICCAI. He held 16 USA patents.