This post comes rather late in the day since I flew in from Hong Kong early this morning and spent the day trying to catch up on correspondence (still not done), news (not even close) and phone calls (yes, one success!). However, while the memories are still knocking about my skull, perhaps I should lay out a few things from the conference before they become permanent residents on the rubbish heap that is my long-term memory.

That isn’t to say that the 7th Annual Intellectual Property Forum hosted by Managing IP Magazine was not memorable. It was a pleasure being there, and I not only enjoyed seeing some old friends and colleagues, but I learned a few things along the way. Not bad. Thanks again to Peter Ollier and all the folks over at MIP. (Peter also did double duty moderating a IP valuation and licensing panel on the second day that was excellent.)

More important to me, of course, was the panel on Social Media I moderated on Day 1, which went quite well, IMHO. That was probably because I shut up most of the time and relied upon my fellow panelists for their expertise. In order of presentation they were:

• Danny Friedmann, author of the IP Dragon blog and PhD Candidate at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (working towards a degree in PRC IP law).
• Xie Lin, also a PhD Candidate at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and fresh off a stint at Oxford University (also studying IP law).
• Chris Baily of Rouse, a very well known IP firm that has been specializing in China IP registration and enforcement for a very long time – they are also in other Asian jurisdictions as well as the UK. Chris is based in Guangzhou and, as you can imagine, handles a lot of anti-counterfeiting projects.

Very nice group. After I introduced what Social Media is and why IP lawyers should care about it (I believe I used the term “freaked out”), I turned things over to the panel.

Danny spoke on trademark law, introducing a very provocative vision of the future where Social Network operators assume more liability for trademark infringement based on Terms of Use, and in return are given more flexibility/protection from straightforward (national law based) trademark actions. Interesting stuff – perhaps he will publish this idea? Danny used to be a journalist and is a blogger, so he comes at this topic with a very unique perspective.

Xie Lin went next and took us through copyright infringement, focusing on ISP liability and Safe Harbor issues. This is Xie Lin’s speciality, so it was a treat having her there to boil down this technical field into some easily digestible bits. To give you a taste, she stated that liability concerns related to the Safe Harbor provision in the US and related law in several other jurisdictions turn on ISP/operator knowledge. For the purposes of this topic, what did the Social Media enterprise know and when did they know it within the context of a typical Notice and Takedown scenario. She sounded a bit skeptical that Safe Harbor was, in the end, all that safe. Hmm.

Next up was Chris Bailey, who had suggested to me before we started that I flip the order of speakers so that he would go last. Great idea, and it worked out perfectly. Chris built upon the trademark and copyright issues raised by Danny and Xie Lin and rolled it up into some practical concerns for IP owners to consider when putting together Social Media monitoring and enforcement programs.

Sorry for the technical legal-speak. If you’re not into IP, you may have long since abandoned this post. Fair enough, but let me end with a non-legal anecdote from the trip to reward all you faithful readers.

Aside from the conference, the trip was a mixed bag. Due to procrastination, I was stuck flying with China Eastern on a ridiculous Beijing-Shanghai-Hong Kong itinerary that tripled the time it should have taken me to get to HK. Of the four individual flights (i.e., including the return to Beijing), two were delayed. Nice percentage.

I’m a nice person, though, and I did not complain about the delays. Neither did I get upset when the woman in Shanghai dropped her suitcase on my head as she was attempting to heave it into the overhead compartment. She did apologize, so I thought that was acceptable. I think my neck hurts today, though, which is making me decidedly grumpy (me grumpy? perish the thought!).

My usual reaction to Hong Kong is that I’m happy when I leave. If I lived there it would be different (everyone I know who lives there loves it), but when you fly in, hang around Central or Kowloon for a day or two, push through the crowds like a sweaty race walker trying to get to your next meeting, and then rush to the airport to make your flight out, well, that’s just not too enjoyable.

At least I had a few moments of downtime and amusement. Top of the list was when I was returning to my hotel Wednesday night after some boozing with a friend. I was on Salisbury Road, about a block away from my destination, when a hooker sidles up to me and says “What hotel you staying in?” I did not make eye contact (very important) and did not break my stride, thinking that my dismissive wave off was sufficient to dissuade her from continued efforts.

Didn’t work. She kept up the pace. I played the stoic (easy for me) but almost lost it when she said “I have many skills.” No doubt. I tried not to laugh and ended up turning slightly to her and saying “Bye bye,” which finally worked.

All in all, the trip was definitely worthwhile. Not only did I have a great time at the conference, but the next time I pitch a client on a new project, there will not be any of the usual brochures or summaries of my experience. I will simply look the prospective client in the eye and say: “I have many skills.” It might work, you never know.