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.
I will be a discussant on the recent WTO arbitral decision in DS/611 before a virtual meeting Friends of the Multilateralism Group (FMG). The FMG brings together WTO Ambassadors (past and present), retirees […]
On July 21, 2025, the arbitrators in DS/611 (the EU complaint regarding Chinese SEP practices) made their decision on the appeal from the initial panel decision. From my perspective, this decision was […]
The “Five Big Offices” (五大局) met in Tianjin, China, on May 27, 2025. The Five Big Offices are known in English as the IP-5, consisting of the five largest patent offices in […]
The USC Gould School of Law’s Center for Transnational Business and Law (CTBL) has organized a cross-cutting program on “U.S. Global Technological Leadership, Intellectual Property Rights, and U.S. National Security” which will […]
The Hudson Institute just released the recording of its recent webinar on Patents and China: What Is the Right Policy for the America First Agenda? | Hudson Institute. Prof. Adam Mossoff moderated […]
The WTO recently released its decision in DS 611, the IP enforcement case involving China’s SEP practices and transparency of China’s judicial decision making. The case makes some progress on China’s important transparency obligations.
The State Department has recently posted the revised US-China Science and Technology Agreement. The revised agreement was concluded in the waning months of the Biden Administration. The revised STA is more narrowly focused on government to government cooperation. It only partially addresses the range of IP-related issues. Nonetheless, it provides a framework for future cooperation.
On March 13, 2025, China’s State Council issued new regulations regarding resolving foreign-related IP disputes. These comments discuss how the regulations might be used to encourage Chinese government responses to foreign government and judicial agencies’ actions against Chinese companies defending or asserting their rights overseas.
Mark Cohen’s spring lecture agenda focuses on new developments in US-China IP relations, developments under Donald Trump, and practical aspects of licensing to or from China.
Asia Society is hosting a virtual workshop on US-China tech competition on February 4, 2025. In addition on February 6, 2025, Pomona College is hosting a lecture on the challenge of translating FRAND into Chinese.
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.
China IPR - Intellectual Property Developments in China 