I sat down with Nam Ngô Thiên (Chinese name: 吴天南, Wu Tiennan) (picture above) on Sept 15 in Beijing, fortunate to catch him on a recent visit back to Beijing since his August 1 relocation to Singapore. Nam represented both the French Patent Office and the European Patent Office in Beijing since 1999. He was with the European Patent Office working on IPR-1, the first-round European IPR technical assistance program in Beijing from 1999-2003, when I first met him. At that time he was ably assisted by Ms. Teri Dunphy and by Yang Guohua, from the Ministry of Commerce, amongst others.   He  came back to China in 2004 with the French Industrial Property Office (INPI), staying until 2012. Nam is a dear colleague and friend and will be difficult to replace.

There is also one recent diplomatic arrival in China: Jared Ragland, from USPTO, who is posted to a new office in Shanghai. Jared came over from USTR to USPTO.  He also has a solid scientific background that will likely be valuable to the R&D community in Shanghai. The contact information for Jared can be found here.

I wish Nam and Jared the best in their new postings!