The official grand opening of the Chinese Intellectual Property Resource Center at The John Marshall Law School in Chicago will be marked by a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011. The celebration marks the culmination of nearly two years of work to develop the Center that is destined to be a helping hand for global attorneys looking for current information on China’s intellectual property law.
Guests will include Gan Shaoning, the deputy commissioner of China’s State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO); Lu Kun, the deputy consul general of the Chinese Consulate in Chicago; Sharon Barner, former deputy commissioner of the United States Patent and Trademark Office; and United States District Court Chief Judge James Holderman, who has participated in John Marshall’s moot court programs in Beijing. They will be part of the festivities at the Center located on the 17th Floor of John Marshall’s facilities at 321 S. Plymouth Ct. in Chicago.
The Center was founded in response to the growing importance of Chinese intellectual property (IP) laws and issues in connection with world commerce and intellectual property development. The Center has been the dream of Dean John E. Corkery and Dorothy In-Lan Wang Li, director of the law school’s Asian Alliance Program. They first approached Chinese attorneys about the idea for a Center two years ago when John Marshall and SIPO marked the 15th anniversary of their cooperative partnership.
“It’s very exciting to have The John Marshall Law School establish this Center,” said Corkery. “I know it will prove to be a major asset for IP attorneys across the United States. Dorothy Li has worked tirelessly with our Chinese partners on this project as we have expanded our partnership of many years.”
“We think this will be a most important initiative to continuously improve the understanding between Chinese and American attorneys in the IP field,” added Li, who is serving as the senior counsel for the new Center.
The Center’s focus is on making Chinese information available to IP practitioners. Chinese IP laws and enforcement practices have changed rapidly, and laws have been altered in fundamental ways as China has sought to increase both its commercial activities and its adherence to international IP standards.
Through the Center, The John Marshall Law School is providing resources on the latest Chinese rules and laws. The Center staff has worked with SIPO officials, leading judges and practitioners to identify documents and analyses on important IP standards, issues and practices to be made available via the Internet.
The Center also will offer programs for IP specialists on substantive features of developing IP laws and practices in China. In addition, the Center will regularly bring together IP scholars with interests in China for conferences, and it will extend visiting appointments to Chinese IP scholars and U.S. and international scholars with interests in Chinese IP developments.
Professor Benjamin P. Liu is serving as the director of the Chinese IP Resource Center and its academic programs. Executive Director Arthur Yuan is working on the Center’s programs and administration, and Li will continue to provide her valuable guidance.
The Chinese IP Resource Center has been embraced by Chinese attorneys who are working with the Center. Many are attorneys in private practice or at SIPO who have received LLM degrees in intellectual property law from The John Marshall Law School.
In addition to the official grand opening, the Chinese IP Resource Center is hosting a lecture by Professor Wen Xikai of SIPO’s China Intellectual Property Training Center. She was one of the first Chinese attorneys to come to John Marshall in 1994 for training in IP law.
Her 9 a.m. presentation on Aug. 23 will focus on “Implications of the Third Amendment to China’s Patent Law.” The program, open to the public, will be in Room 1200 of the law school.
For additional information on the Center’s initiatives, or on the Aug. 23 presentation and grand opening ceremonies, contact Arthur Yuan at ayuan@jmls.edu or 312.427.2737 ext. 794.