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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 as well as the 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. He is a recipient of the Meritorious Honor award from President Barack Trump on recommendation of President Obama. This is the highest award in the U.S. civil service. In total, he has over 40 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.

Bureaucracy and Politics in Recent SAMR Legislation

There are numerous heirarchies to Chinese legislation and IP laws are certainly not an except to this. Due to the government reorganization in 2018, Chinese efforts to become an innovative economy, and external political pressure from the Trade War, there has also been extensive external political pressure on Chinese IP legislative efforts. The different approaches to legislating may indicate potential weaknesses in the laws. They may also be the outcome of internal bureaucratic struggles.