The Changing Role of Intellectual Property in Asia: Moving Beyond “Producers” and “Consumers”
March 7 & 8, 2008
University of Illinois - Urbana, Illinois
Papers and presentations are linked below. Video of each panel will be added in the near future. Please contact conference co-chair, Glenn Hoetker, with any questions.
The standing paradigm is that certain countries are primarily producers of intellectual property (IP), while others are primarily consumers of that IP. Each group’s incentives are clear. Producers favor strong IP protection to generate economic incentives to develop new technologies. While consuming nations see strong enforcement as burdensome, the consensus is that improved IP enforcement will spur their economic development. However, new realities challenge that paradigm.
Some previous consumers have become IP producer of the first order, e.g., South Korea. Others now have constituents in both groups, e.g., India's generic pharmaceutical industry, which favors weak IP enforcement, versus its film industry and burgeoning Indian high-end pharmaceutical market, both of which favor stronger IP enforcement.
AIDS and other diseases have created strong social and economic incentives for countries to violate IP protection on critical drugs. Despite resistance form pharmaceutical companies, some advocates for consumers now propose a moral rationale for non-enforcement of IPR and argue that a healthy society is a critical component of economic development.
The globalization of production and trade has dramatically increased the stakes of IP enforcement. It is now deeply intertwined with international relationships and global trade negotiations.
Friday, March 7
9:00-9:15 Introduction
Glenn Hoetker, Associate Professor (Business, Law, Institute for Genomic Biology), University of Illinois
9:15-10:15 Keynote address
Alan Wm. Wolff, Partner, Dewey and LeBoeuf, Washington, DC
10:30-12:00 Intellectual Property and Economic Development
Heping Cao, Professor, Peking University School of Economics, and Vice President, Yunnan University
Doris Long, Professor, The John Marshall Law School
Jerome Reichman, Bunyan S. Womble Professor of Law, Duke Law School
Jayashree Watal, Counsellor (Intellectual Property Division) World Trade Organization
Moderator: Thomas Ulen, Swanlund Professor of Law, University of Illinois
1:30-3:00 Intellectual Property and Agriculture
Srividhya Ragavan, Associate Professor of Law, University of Oklahoma College of Law
Guanming Shi, Assistant Professor of Agricultural and Applied Economics, University of Wisconsin
Brian Wright, Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California, Berkeley
Moderator: Bryan Endres, Assistant Professor of Agricultural Law, University of Illinois
3:15-4:45 Intellectual Property and Venture Capital
Ulrike Schaede, Associate Professor of Japanese Business, University of California, San Diego
Paul Vaaler, Associate Professor of International Business, University of Minnesota
Moderator: Janet Bercovitz, Assistant Professor (Business, Institute for Genomic Biology), University of Illinois
Saturday, March 8
9:00-10:45 Intellectual Property, Piracy and Trade
Fred Abbott, Edward Ball Eminent Scholar, College of Law, Florida State University
Richard Komaiko, Research Fellow, US-China Economic and Security Review Commission
Shubha Ghosh, Professor of Law, SMU Dedman School of Law
Moderator: Todd Allee, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Illinois
11:00-12:15 What have we learned and where do we go from now
Glenn Hoetker, Associate Professor (Business, Law, Institute for Genomic Biology), University of Illinois
Robert Kneller, Professor, Department of Intellectual Property, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Tokyo
Brian Wright, Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California, Berkeley
Moderator: Jay Kesan, Professor & Director, Program in Intellectual Property & Technology Law , College of Law, University of Illinois
Sponsored by the Center for Advanced Study initiative on Science and Technology in the Pacific Century, Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies, College of Law, Institute for Genomic Biology and the Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership