The 11th Japan-China-Korea Design Forum
– Design protection in the global economy and Web 3.0 –

HAMANO Koichi
Commissioner, Japan patent office

Born on May 6, 1964 in Fukushima, Japan.
Graduated from The University of Tokyo’s Faculty of Law, and studied at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris.

BIAN Yongjun,

Deputy Director General of industrial design examination department of CNIPA.

He has been engaged in the examination, research and management of design for more than 20 years and successively served in reexamination and invalidation department and the design examination department of CNIPA. He was also involved in revision of patent law and implementation regulations and conducted lots of research projects on design.

MASUDA Masafumi, Attorney at law, Partner, Mori Hamada & Matsumoto

Masafumi Masuda is a Partner Attorney at Mori Hamada & Matsumoto, admitted to practise in Japan and New York. He utilises his background in engineering to handle numerous IT and digital matters across various industries, in particular gaming, metaverse and web services, and now he is leading such emerging practices in his firm as the Head of IT Practice Group. He has written extensively on copyright and digital content issues, including The NFT Textbook (co-editor, Asahi Shimbun Publications, 2021), Copyright and Rules for Internet Business, 2nd edn (co-author, CRIC, 2020), The Google Books Case: Analysis and Evaluation of Court Documents (co-author, Shojihomu, 2016), Digital Content Law and Policy (co-author, Asahi Shimbun Publications, 2012), and given numerous lectures and presentations. He earned his B.E. from the University of Tokyo (2004), J.D. from Chuo Law School (2007) and LL.M. in Law, Science and Technology from Stanford Law School (2016). After studying at Stanford, he worked at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in Chicago and Mori Hamada & Matsumoto (Singapore) LLP in Singapore. He is also actively working on newly recognised interdisciplinary areas such as fintech. Having served as a drafter for the government until 2020, working on reforming financial regulations in relation to blockchain, he frequently employs his cutting-edge knowledge in blockchain-related cases. He has been recognised as one of the best lawyers in Japan in both the information technology law and the fintech practice fields since 2021.

Takuya Oono

General Manager
Intellectual Property Department
General Administration Division
KDDI CORPORATION

Current position from April 2022.
Group Leader, IP Licensing Group, Intellectual Property Department, April 2012.
Intellectual Property Division, KDDI CORPORATION, October 2003.
Judicial Affairs, M&A and so on in Legal Department, KDDI CORPORATION, 2001.
DDI Communications America Corporation (later KDDI America, Inc.), 1999.
Legal Affairs Group, Administration Department, DDI CORPORATION, 1991.
Bachelor of Laws, Tokyo University, 1991.

He is mainly engaged in IP-related contract review, litigation dispute resolution, licensing, etc. From November 2021 to April 2022, he contributed to the preparation of the Virtual City Guidelines Ver. 1.0. He has 1st grade Certified Specialist of Intellectual Property Management (patent).

Zhou Ligang

Chairman of Hangzhou Bole Industrial Design Co., LTD
President of Hangzhou Industrial Design Association

Member of CPPCC Standing Committee, Shangcheng District, Hangzhou

Winner of the "Top Ten Outstanding Youth of China Design Industry", "Top Ten Outstanding Designers of China Industrial Design";
Vice Chairman of National Industrial Design Innovation Industry Alliance, Vice chairman of Industrial Design Branch of China Mechanical Engineering Society;
Vice President of Zhejiang Industrial Design Association, Vice president of Zhejiang Merchants Research Association, vice president of New Economic Committee;
Vice President of Hangzhou Entrepreneurs Association;

He has been a judge of National Industrial Design Center, Guanghua Longteng Award and China Excellent Industrial Design Award. He has been invited by more than ten universities as distinguished tutor and visiting professor of Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology.

KIM Beom-joo

Unity Technologies Korea
Head of Evangelism

Kim Beom-joo graduated from Hongik University with a degree in Textile Art in 1995, and then received a master's degree in game content design at the same school's Graduate School of Media. Having experience in animation, film, and game productions such as 'Restol Special Rescue Team', 'Faceless Beauty', and 'Kingdom Under Fire'. At NCsoft, He participated in producing the 'Hodoo English' as content production and animation directing. He is researching the process of creating new media content at Unity Technologies Korea now. He is also working as an advisor to Seoul Metropolitan Government, LG Economic Research Institute, SK Management Economic Research Institute, and Korea Creative Content Agency.

Mr GAO Xiang

Deputy Consultant of International Application Examination Division , Industrial Design Examination Department of CNIPA.

He has been involved into examination of industry design since 2007, during which he participated in a number of research projects and published lots of articles. In 2014, he began to engage in examination of GUI and has accumulated rich examination experience.

NONAKA Matsuo (Mr.)

Mr. NONAKA Matsuo was appointed as Director General of the Patent and Design Examination Department (Physics, Social Infrastructure and Design) of the Japan Patent Office (JPO) in July 2022. He received a Master of Engineering from Tohoku University in 1992, and a Master of Laws from University of Washington School of Law in 2004.

Since joining the JPO in 1992, Mr. Nonaka has served as an examiner and a patent administrative judge, primarily in the field of information technology. He has broad experience working at external organizations, including the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) from 1998 to 2000, the Secretariat of IP Strategy Headquarters from 2005 to 2007, and the Industrial Property Cooperation Center (IPCC) from 2013 to 2015.

From 2010 to 2012, Mr. Nonaka was in charge of international IT cooperation as director for international affairs of the IT Planning Office. He has held various management positions at the JPO since that time, such as Director of the Trial and Appeal Policy Planning Office, Director of the International Policy Division, Deputy Director General of the Patent Examination Department (Electronic Technology), and Director of the Administrative Affairs Division.