French intellectuals have long been famed for gathering in salons at Parisian homes to discuss the burning issues of the day.

Believing such wide-ranging inquiry would benefit doctoral and master's candidates in intellectual property, four post-graduate students at Peking University Science and Technology Law Center began organizing their own salon in early 2009.

"Our initial purpose to hold a salon was quite simple - just to provide free space for discussion," said Zhao Qishan, a PhD from the law school and co-founder of the Peking University Intellectual Property Salon.

The forum is not only a place for exchange of domestic and international information in the field, but also helps bridge theory and practice.

"Due to close ties with industries, many intellectual property problems are not just about legal issues, but a mixture of industrial development policies and business models," Zhao noted.

After it opened, the salon began attracting legal practitioners, judges, corporate executives in charge of intellectual property affairs, governmental officials and patent agents, though the majority of participants remain students.

Discussion by participants from such diverse backgrounds provides multi-faceted insight and supplements academic research with expertise in legal practice, Zhao said.

In contrast to conventional teaching methods, which focus more on written studies of law, the salon highlights the relationship between education, research and communication, she said.

"We also capitalize on our university's position in frontier academic research and put an industrial focus on some emerging issues that otherwise might not attract wide attention," she added.

The salon is held once a month except summer or winter vacations.

From September 2009 to March 2010, its five sessions have had themes ranging from analysis of difficult civil problems in anti-trust to the significance of trademarks in legal conflicts and piercing the veil of technical standards and intellectual property, as well as technological innovation, Internet copyright infringement liability and comments on tort liability.

The sixth salon is scheduled for next Tuesday, with discussions revolving around the relationship between laws on unfair competition and intellectual property protection.

(Source: China Daily)