Shoichi Okuyama’s Reflection on the AIPPI Membership

Since I will finish my term as the President of AIPPI in Hangzhou, I would like to look at the state of affairs at AIPPI in terms of its membership. Why do I care about the AIPPI membership number? The reason is that AIPPI exists for its members, and nothing else. The number, as I believe, would show the strength of support among our members. Those who join AIPPI must have been looking at their colleagues and friends who are already members of AIPPI. AIPPI is very important to me personally because I participated in it during my entire professional career from the beginning until almost the end, but that is not an issue here. The AIPPI Bureau is mandated to serve our members. More and more people are willing to pay for our service and come to our World Congresses, which indicates support of our members. The membership figure shows the strength of this association.

When I became the Second Vice President in 2018, the number was 8,774. This number seems to have been a norm over many years. Sometimes, it went over 9,100 and came down to 8,400.

Then, the pandemic hit in 2020. Without having two in-person World Congresses, the number went down to 8,046, and 7,995 in 2021. As I talked to other IP organisations, they seemed to have suffered harder, but our weaking was clear.

After the two virtual World Congresses which were difficult to organise but successful, we came back to a real in-person event in San Fransisco in 2022, but Asian countries were still struggling with the pandemic then. We had more than 2,000 participants in Istanbul, and we also started to see an increased membership.

Now in 2024, just before the Hangzhou Congress and my retirement, I am delighted to report that we have 8,715 AIPPI members as of 15 August 2024. Also, the registration figure for Hangzhou is more than 2,200. Considering the fact that an Asian location is somewhat distanced from major IP-developed countries, I find this number significant.

With the new MidTerm Meeting series (rebranded from Spring Meetings) and various measures to empower young AIPPI members in particular, I expect to see increased activity levels.

I will retire from my current position in AIPPI with full recovery of the organisation and signs of further growth. I thank you for supporting AIPPI.