"From the Lab to the Market," a two-day conference on Intellectual Property (IP) Management organized by the University of Wisconsin Law School’s East Asian Legal Studies Center in cooperation with Nanjing University and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), brought participants to Nanjing University, Nanjing, in October 2008 to assess intellectual property issues in China and elsewhere.

The program featured speakers from Nanjing University, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and experts from fields of law and business.

Dr. Carl Gulbrandsen, the Managing Director of WARF, who holds a Ph.D. in Physiology and a J.D. from the UW Law School, presented the October 18 keynote address: "The Bayh-Dole Act: Wisconsin Roots and Inspired Public Policy."

Looking back on the event, Gulbrandsen commented, "The conference was a great step toward establishing a strong contact with an important market for the State and the Law School. It was also great to find out that the Nanjing law school Dean is a Badger, as is the Vice President of Nanjing University. It was a great example of the Wisconsin Idea in action."

Other Madison participants joining Gulbrandsen in Nanjing were Craig Christianson from WARF; Attorney Rochelle Klaskin of Godfrey & Kahn; Professor John Ohnesorge, Vice-Director of the Law School’s East Asian Legal Studies Center and a chief organizer of the conference; and UW Law School professors Allison Christians, Pilar Ossorio, and Shubha Ghosh.

Professor Ghosh commented, "The Nanjing conference provided a perfect opportunity for leading faculty at UW to meet their counterparts at Nanjing and have a fruitful conversation about commercialization and patent law in the U.S. and China."

Attorney Rochelle Klaskin, Shareholder and Managing Partner at the Madison office of Godfrey & Kahn, commented, "I found the conference to be an exciting example of how global markets have made the world a much smaller place. This conference's Chinese audience in Nanjing, a city of more than 6 million, wanted to learn and model itself on the success and experience of Madison, Wisconsin, a city of 225,000 residents.

"This conference also demonstrated the need for intellectual property reform in China," Klaskin added. "As more and more Chinese businesses and entrepreneurs purchase intellectual property rights abroad or develop them internally, they want and need those rights to be respected and protected. I was pleased to be a Madison ambassador and truly enjoyed the opportunity to participate in this dynamic conference."

Professor Ohnesorge, who is Co-Director of the UW-Madison China Initiative, commented on the Nanjing conference, "When our graduate Kening Li, of Pinsent Masons in Shanghai, came to us with the idea for this conference, Chuck Irish [Director of the East Asian Legal Studies Center] and I thought it looked like a great way for the East Asian Legal Studies Center to facilitate contacts among WARF, UW, the UW Law School faculty, Nanjing University, the Bar, the high-tech business community, and relevant Chinese government authorities. It was not the easiest event to coordinate, but we think the results show that it was worth the effort."

Panel topics included:

Intellectual Property Law: Recent Developments in China and the U.S.

Obtaining and Enforcing Intellectual Property Rights in China: Progress and Challenges

Creating and Managing an IP Portfolio in China

Commercialization of University Intellectual Property: Experiences and Challenges

For more information on participants, see

http://law.wisc.edu/news/index.php?ID=1217 .

Submitted by on October 29, 2008

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