April 9th-10th, 2009: Dr. Thomas Kurig, partner of Becker Kurig Straus law firm in Germany, visited Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST). He was invited by Prof. Xiang Yu, Director, Chinese-German Institute for Intellectual Property. Prof. Lirong Long, Assistant to the Dean, Management School in HUST, received the honorable guest.

Dr. Kurig delivered a wonderful speech titled "Patent strategies for Chinese companies doing business in EU countries" on the morning of 10th April in the School of Management. The lecture was presided by Prof. Xiang Yu while Vice Prof. Xiaodong Yuan, and Vice Prof. Fumin Zhao were among the attendees.

First, Prof. Yu Xiang briefly introduced Dr. Kurig to the audience, and afterwards Dr. Kurig used his mobile phone as an example to explain the relevance of protecting the product by patent, design and trademark. Subsequently, from a senior German and European patent attorney’ s perspective, Dr. Kurig made many valuable suggestions for Chinese companies using the features of the European patent systems effectively to protect and expand the business in the EU countries. By comparing the European and the Chinese patent system, by using real data and cases, he described: (a) how to choose the first patent application country and the application language, (b)how to make use of the priority and ways of PCT patent application, (c) how to effectively make use of transformation between German patents and utility model, (d) how to take full advantage of the convenience of conditions provided by the European Community Designs and Community Trademark system, (e) how to improve the quality of patent applications, (f) how to deal with infringement of warning letters, and, (g) how to avoid patent and trademark infringement.

The lecture also attracted a lot of listeners from other faculties who viewed it as interesting and beneficial.

Links: Becker Kurig Straus is an European Intellectual Property law firm (headquartered in Munich ), and Dr. Thomas Kurig is one of the founders of the Becker Kurig Straus law firm. He is also a member of the Institute of Patent Attorneys admitted at the European Patent Office (EPI), the Board of German Patent Attorneys, FICPI and LES.