The 7^th China IP International Annual Forum & 2017 Annual Conference of In-house IP Managers in China (the “Forum”) was held in Beijing recently, where the Watson & Band IP services team was named the 2016 Outstanding IP Services Team in China. Watson & Band Executive Partner Frank Qian attended the Forum and accepted the honor on behalf of the firm.

The Forum was themed IP Route and Strategies for Enterprises under New International Situation, and it issued a comprehensive summary and outlook for the 2017 Chinese IP services industry. In addition to its focus on macro policies and rules, the Forum placed great emphasis on the significant driving force that IP rights exerts on China’s real economic development, as well as the management and application of IP rights in enterprise innovation and development. Since its debut in 2011, the Forum has become one of the most authoritative forums in the Chinese IP industry.

The annual appraisal and selection of the Outstanding IP Service Team in China is jointly hosted by China Intellectual Property magazine and the China Daily newspaper. In order to comprehensively and impartially evaluate the overall capacities of the candidate teams, this year’s appraisal started with the practices and expertise advantages of candidate IP services teams and applied a method combining special index rankings and comprehensive interviews and reports. With its outstanding professional competency, strong expertise, superior research ability and strong team spirit, Watson & Band stood out from the other candidates and took home the award.

In the future Watson & Band’s IP service team will continue its operating model of “service by teams and management by departments”, and it will provide its clients with detailed investment strategies and superb legal services that are tailored to specific industries.