Mark Cohen (Berkeley Center for Law and Technology)

Over the last several years, Chinese authorities have taken major steps to improve the PRC’s intellectual property (IP) regime. Every major IP law has been amended, new specialized IP courts have been established, IP-related international agreements have been signed, and China’s IP offices and litigation dockets have grown astronomically. At the same time, the United States continues to accuse China of massive IP theft that allegedly has cost the American economy hundreds of billions of dollars.
Mark Cohen, a Senior Fellow and Director at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, and the first representative of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in China, will seek to answer why, if China has indeed improved its regime, do American companies and the USG continue to complain about it? He also will review the degree to which US pressure has affected Chinese IP practices and the issues that our negotiations with Chinese officials may all be missing.