Mark Allen Cohen (柯恒) is currently the Senior Technology Fellow at the Asia Society of Northern California and at the Asia Society Policy Institute He also serves an Edison Fellow at the University of Akron School of Law and as a non-resident fellow at the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley, the University of California at San Diego, and at the National Bureau of Asian Research. He was the first Intellectual Property Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and as Attorney-Advisor in the Office of International Relations at USPTO. Among his many awards, he is a recipient of the Meritorious Honor award from President Barack Obama on recommendation of President Obama for his work on technology transfer issues involving China This is the highest award in the U.S. civil service. In total, he has nearly 50 years of private, public sector, in house and academic experience on IPR issues in China. This blog represents the personal opinions of Mark Cohen and any guest authors only and should not be construed as the position of any third party or client. Among his recent awards, he has been given (again) a "Top 300 Global IP Strategist" award (2026) by Intellectual Asset Management magazine: https://www.iam-media.com/rankings/strategy-300.
Three reports released during IP week at the end of April separately reflect Chinese judicial plans to issue Anti-suit injunctions, increase global influence, and play a role as a global IP norm setter.
There is still time to register for “Quantum Leap: Developments in China IP Law over the Past Two Years”. The program will discuss the major changes in Chinese IP that have occurred […]
USTR released its Special 301 Report (the “Report”) on April 30, 2021. The China except is attached here. The Report addresses a wider range of IP issues than in many prior years. […]
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.
Two upcoming events to be hosted by Berkeley. On April 27, we will host our third annual Tech, Trade and China program and on May 6 we will host “Quantum Leap”, an overview of the dramatic developments in China’s IP environment in the past two years.
USTR’s recently released NTE report shows continuing lack of clarity over key Chinese legal terms. The report also declines to discuss commercial rule of law issues raised in last years Special 301 report. What role does commercial rule of law have in the Biden Administration’s trade diplomacy? The answer is unclear.
he Supreme People’s Court issued a draft of a second draft judicial interpretation on plant varieties for public comment on March 23, 2021. Comments are due April 15, 2021.
What are the priorities for USTR in engaging China on IP issues? Will USTR reach out to other agencies to build an informed and efficient process to bear on Chinese and IP and tech issues? There are many built-in impediments in the US government structures to making that reality possible.
Here is a listing of recordings of some recent programs that are now available as well as a listing of upcoming events. The Third Berkeley-Tsinghua Conference on Transnational IP Litigation was held […]
Several new rules from China’s State Administration for Market Regulation portend a more active role for administrative enforcement of patents, in both patent linkage and major disputes affecting Chinese national interests. How much due process do these rules afford? Are they compatible with the TRIPS Agreement? Will foreigners be treated fairly? Will the administrative agencies be transparent in their decisions and make their cases publicly available. SAMR’s database of IP cases is also relatively new.
There are a number of open issues.
Mark Allen Cohen (柯恒} is a Distinguished Senior Fellow, Director and Lecturer of the Asia IP Project at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology at the University of California, Berkeley. In total, he has nearly 40 years of private sector, public sector, etc., in-house and academic experience on IPR issues in China, including numerous publications and awards. This is his private blog.
