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UC Berkeley Web Feature

Delegates from China to visit UC Berkeley for new innovation and intellectual property rights program

– About 20 judges, policymakers, and enterprise executives from China are convening at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business for a unique new training program on innovation and intellectual property rights.

Berkeley's new China Innovation & Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Leadership Program is aimed at strengthening intellectual property protection and enhancing innovation in the world's most populous country. The program takes advantage of close interdisciplinary collaboration at Berkeley, with classes taught by professors from the Haas School of Business, School of Information, School of Law (Boalt), and Boalt's Berkeley Center for Law & Technology.

From Oct. 9 to Oct. 18, program participants will attend specially designed courses on intellectual property rights and innovation. The program has been organized by UC Berkeley's Center for Research on Chinese & American Strategic Cooperation (CRC), which is part of the Institute of Management, Innovation, and Organization, housed at the Haas School.

"We are pleased to assist our Chinese colleagues as they strive for a better understanding of the workings of complex intellectual property systems," says Haas School Professor David Teece, director of the Institute of Management, Innovation, and Organization. "The program will be a wonderful opportunity to share perspectives and knowledge around the design and implementation of efficient and effective intellectual property regimes."

Teece, who also holds the Mitsubishi Bank Chair in International Business and Finance, is teaching a course on the origins and role of innovation and intellectual property on the first day of the program.

Courses also will include intellectual property case studies on such topics as the Beijing Olympics developed earlier this year and completed in China this summer by graduate students from across the Berkeley campus. The case studies were overseen by Haas School faculty Henry Chesbrough, executive director of the Center for Open Innovation, and Jihong Sanderson, executive director of Berkeley CRC.

After the in-class training, the delegates will join various high-level corporate executives in a closed-door discussion Oct. 19, to be attended by Dean Tom Campbell and Richard Lyons, executive associate dean of the Haas School, Dean AnnaLee Saxenian of the School of Information, and Dean Christopher Edley of the School of Law.

From Oct. 20-26, participants will gain hands-on training as "interns" at California high-tech companies, IP management firms, law firms and United States courts.

The training comes as China faces mounting pressure from both the U.S. and European Union to crack down on piracy of software, movies and other intellectual property. UC Berkeley, meanwhile, has been at the forefront of innovation and intellectual property issues, with faculty across campus leading the charge for U.S. patent reform.

"In our research we have discovered that the Chinese public misunderstands many aspects of U.S. values and priorities, while Americans surprisingly are even less well-informed about the realities of modern China," says Sanderson. "With the program, we are creating a framework where such misunderstanding can be replaced by direct communication in order to enhance cooperation between the U.S. and China."

Tapping its strong ties to the Pacific Rim, UC Berkeley has been able to win support for the Berkeley China Innovation & IPR Leadership Program from high-level Chinese officials. Earlier this year, a Chinese delegation led by Duan Ruichun, a former top negotiator on intellectual property rights for China in World Trade Organization talks, traveled to Berkeley to sign a memorandum of understanding to initiate the program.

Future plans for the Berkeley China Innovation & IPR Leadership program call for additional training programs, workshops, summits, research, and field studies for Chinese officials in both China and the U.S.

Program sponsors who have made this new training program possible include IP VALUE; Callaway Golf; IE California; Air Products; BEA Systems; Cisco Systems; Fish & Richardson; Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP; Rambus, Silicon Valley Bank Financial Group; Sybase; U.S.-China Legal Cooperation Fund; Institute of Management, Innovation, and Organization; LECG Corp; and Squire Sanders.

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