Daniel Chew, partner and head of Asia group at HLK, and one of the profession’s top mobile and telecoms experts, has been elected as the first Asian president of The Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA). Daniel was elected at the Institute’s 140th Annual General Meeting on 2 November 2022, his term of office will begin on 1 January 2023.
Daniel comments: 'This is an historic step forward for CIPA and I am very proud to become the institute’s first Asian President. As CIPA President I will promote the excellence of the UK IP profession as well as our highly developed and sophisticated IP ecosystem and litigation fora. I’ve been lucky enough to travel the world whilst working in IP, and will be talking to my extensive network about the values of the UK’s IP system.'
Daniel’s top priority as president will be to promote UK Patent Attorneys' rights of representation at the Unified Patent Court, scheduled for launch on 1 April 2023. His other priorities will be to continue to support the ILC which works hard to strengthen CIPA’s friendships with important IP organisations around the world and to help them understand CIPA’s positions on the likely impact on IP of new Free Trade Agreements being negotiated.
Daniel would also like to encourage more members to get involved in CIPA’s committees, particularly younger members and members in industry, and to support regional meetings. This will broaden opportunities for those around the UK. He comments: 'CIPA is building on events and socials across the UK to ensure members can connect and collaborate outside of London.'
Another priority that is close to Daniel’s heart is diversity and inclusion. Daniel explains: 'Representation matters. CIPA has made good progress in recent times on diversity and inclusion, both through its support of IP Inclusive and the work of its new D&I Committee. But there is a lot of work still to be done to attract women and people from ethnic minority groups into the profession. As part of my role, I will be discussing this issue with members to ensure that they understand CIPA’s commitment to driving Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity'.
Alongside his new role as CIPA president, Daniel will continue to drive HLK’s strong presence in Asia. Under his leadership, HLK now represents the largest EPO filer in Taiwan and a number of top ten EPO filers in China.
Daniel has also played an integral role in numerous joint missions with patent offices to promote the IP profession and IP protection in Europe through various overseas visits to Asia as well as the USA.
