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Mark Cohen （柯恒）

Mark Allen Cohen (柯恒) is currently the Senior Technology Fellow at the Asia Society of Northern California and an Edison Fellow at the University of Akron School of Law. He also serves as a Non-Resident Scholar at the University of California Haas School of Business and University of California, San Diego, and the National Bureau of Asian Research. He previously served as the first Intellectual Property Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and as Attorney-Advisor in the Office of International Relations at USPTO. In total, he has over 30 years private, public sector, in house and academic experience on IPR issues in China. This blog represents the opinions of Mark Cohen and any guest authors only and should not be construed as the position of any third party.

Reviewing Recent Literature on the WTO and Antitrust in IP

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Two books, China and the WTO: Why Multilateralism Still Matter (Mavroidis and Sapir), and Chinese Antitrust Exceptionalism (Zhang) consider trade and competition law aspects of the U.S.-China trade dispute.  They discuss the treatment of state-owned enterprises under international trade and domestic competition law rules.  They also discuss IP-specific issues, particularly forced technology transfer by or for the state and the control of abusive technology licensing practices, including the licensing of standards essential patents and China’s discriminatory Administration of Technology Import/Export Regulations (“TIER”), which has since been amended.  The books and article are part of several academic and popular discourses on the disruptive and unpredictable policy agenda of the Trump administration, which also provide cautionary roadmaps for future engagement – or confrontation – with China.

China’s New Blocking Statute Comes into Effect

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The NPC passed China’s new blocking statute, the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law  中华人民共和国反外国制裁法 on June 10, 2021. The Law provides support for the delegation of power to enable lower-level agencies to implement sanctions measures.  As the Law is vaguely worded, State Council agencies are likely to have considerable discretion in implementing it. Of particular concern to multinational companies, the Law also covers spouses and immediate family members as well as officers of listed sanctioned entities.