FCA members are invited to join a discussion at 10am this Thursday 14 May 2020 with Daren Tang, the Chief Executive of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS). Mr Tang was appointed as the next Director General (DG) of the UN World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) last week and will begin his six-year term in October. This first-ever FCA webinar, on Zoom, will give you a special opportunity to engage with and ask questions of the incoming head of the WIPO.

Mr Tang will start the session with a short introduction to provide insights on the background of the IPOS, why intellectual property is becoming increasingly important in the digital economy and why Singapore wants to lead the WIPO. We will then have a Question & Answer session for the rest of the hour, moderated by FCA member Richard Hartung. This session will provide a chance to gain insights into how intellectual property rights are evolving and Mr Tang’s plans for WIPO.

Daren Tang currently serves as the chief executive of IPOS, a statutory board under the Ministry of Law, where he drove the strategic transformation of IPOS from an IP registry and regulator into an innovation agency that helps to build Singapore’s future economy. His term saw major updates to Singapore’s IP Hub Masterplan, legislative and policy reforms to the IP regime and a scaling up of international engagement. Under his leadership, IPOS was recognised as Asia’s most innovative IP office and ranked 2nd in the world by the World Trademark Review in 2019. Prior to his appointment as chief executive, IPOS, Mr Tang was the lead negotiator and legal counsel for Singapore in the IP chapters of several important free trade agreements, and he was part of Singapore’s legal team that argued a major territorial dispute before the International Court of Justice. Mr. Tan has a Bachelor of Laws from the National University of Singapore and a Master of Laws from Georgetown University in the United States.

Please register to join the session by 12pm on Wednesday, 13 May 2020. A Zoom link to connect to the meeting will be sent to all registered participants before the meeting.