September 23-25, 2026, Hanoi, Vietnam:

Over three days, in my role as Senior Consultant on Intellectual Property for BMVN (Baker & McKenzie Vietnam), I was involved in organizing and participating in two major IP-related programs in Hanoi, Vietnam.

On September 23, I moderated a session on "Challenges in Online Content Enforcement" with Ho Fai Mok, VP Content Protection Legal (Asia-Pacific) and Daniel Lye, Content Protection Counsel, of the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE)/Motion Picture Association (MPA); Edward Veronda, International Computer Hacking and IP Attorney-Advisor (Asia), U.S. Department of Justice; Hoong Dinh Chung, Director, Vietnam Digital Copyright Center; and Pham Thi Kim Oanh, Deputy Director, Copyright Office of Vietnam, as part of a Forum on IP Enforcement in Vietnam, as which U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam, Jennifer Hicks, gave opening remarks.

On September 24-25, I moderated sessions on "Collection, Handling and Verification of Evidence: Early Stage Judicial Decision-making Through Trial", "Adjudicating Trade Secret Cases", "Trademark Counterfeiting", and "Issues in Content Piracy, Signal and Streaming Theft, Software Programs, and AI Tools," as part of a two-day Judicial Roundtable on Adjudication of IP Enforcement Cases in Vietnam."

The programs were hosted and co-organized by Hanoi Law University, at the direction of the Supreme People's Court, with the support of INTA, ACE/MPA, U.S. Embassy Hanoi, U.S. Department of State INL, U.S. Department of Justice, and the USPTO, and coordinated by BMVN. Notable speakers included: Judge Richard Boulware, U.S. District Court, Las Vegas, Nevada; Judge Edmond Chang, U.S. District Court, Chicago, Illinois; Presiding Judge Young Gi Kim, IP High Court of Korea; Walter Chia, Chief Representative, Asia Pacific, INTA; Tran Le Hong, Deputy Director, IP Vietnam; and Dinh Dong Vang, Head of Brand Protection, Vietnam Anti-Counterfeiting and IP Protection Association (VACIP). More than 250 judges, public prosecutors, law faculty, and other government law enforcement officials, participated in-person and online.

These programs come at a critical time for Vietnam. It is being intensely investigated by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, as part of a review triggered by the April 2026 designation of Vietnam as a Priority Foreign Country under the U.S. Annual Special 301 Review of U.S. trading partners, for insufficient enforcement against the infringement and theft of intellectual property. Vietnam's Prime Minister has ordered government-wide enhanced enforcement activities and prosecution of content piracy and trademark counterfeiting. All eyes in the IP world are turned on Vietnam to see if it will be successful in institutionalizing its current ramped-up focus on IP crime going forward.

August 7, 2026, Pattani, Thailand:

I had the honor to conduct a Workshop on Copyright and Trademark Essentials for Artists at the invitation of the Department of Fine and Applied Arts at Prince of Songkhla University, as part of the Pattani Biennale 2026 program. Speaking to an audience of art students, artists, and curators, both in person and on two Facebook live broadcasts, and ably assisted by Khun Voravuj Sujjaporamest, an artist and owner of VS Gallery in Bangkok, who interpreted and moderated, I discussed issues in copyright and trademark law, especially about generative AI, answered questions, and gave practical advice for artists on how to protect their work in the global and online digital marketplace.

The inaugural Pattani Biennale is being held in the fascinating city of Pattani in southern Thailand, one that in all the years I have been coming to Thailand, and even while living in Bangkok from 2011 to 2017, never had the opportunity to visit.  It has an especially long history and a rich multicultural identity that blends Thai, Chinese, and Malay-Muslim art, architecture, and design traditions. Once a powerful independent 16th-century Islamic sultanate, the city of Pattani features rare historical architecture, distinct local cuisine, and prominent landmarks like the Taj Mahal-inspired Pattani Central Mosque, one of the grandest such structures in all of Thailand, the Chinese-Thai Lim Ko Niao Shrine, and the Buddhist Wat Taneenarasamosorn.

Historically, an economically important fishing industry port city, located at the confluence of the Pattani River and the Gulf of Thailand, Pattani is attempting to remake itself as a vibrant cultural and tourism hub, and shed the image it has had in the past for terrorist insurgence violence.  Hosting this year's international Pattani Biennale this year is a major effort by the government and community to draw attention to this hidden gem of Thailand and its rapidly emerging art community.

May 8, 2026, San Francisco, California:

I had the very good fortune to attend the most amazing screening yesterday at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, with Duo YUMENO providing musical accompaniment for the silent films.

The screening was kicked off by Bucknell University Professor Eric Faden, a specialist in early cinema and recipient of the 2025 Sumie Jones Prize for Project Leadership in Japan-centered Humanities.  He talked about the Japanese Paper Film Project, that restores and digitizes rare, fragile Japanese films printed on paper (“kami eiga”) rather than celluloid.

Using custom-built scanning technology (Kioen), custom software, and machine learning, he and his team are working to preserve and restore the fewer than 200 or so surviving paper film works from the early days of 20th Century Japanese cinema, including rare early anime cartoons, nature films, wartime propaganda, and classic black-and-white films.  

You really almost had to be there to see how this was even possible to work as an actual functioning art form given the fragile nature of paper. But it did, and the results were charming, funny, moving, and an example of human ingenuity and creativity.

The program was a real crowd-pleaser for the sold-out audience attending the festival at the legendary and recently reopened Castro Theatre, following a two-year, $41 million restoration.  

I am always proud of what the Festival has achieved as the largest such festival in the United States focusing on the silent film age of cinema, having been the organization’s first legal counsel in the early 1990s and a long-time member of its Advisory Board.