On Dec. 9-10, the Intellectual Property and Communications Law Program at Michigan State University College of Law will hold a conference on “IP3: Intellectual Property, Innovation Policies and International Perspectives” in Hong Kong.
Held prior to the Sixth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization, this event brings together leading academics, legal practitioners, policy makers and technology experts to address the latest developments and challenges in the areas of intellectual property and information technology.
“We are very fortunate to be able to team up with the University of Hong Kong to put together this timely event,” said Peter Yu, the co-organizer of the event and the founding director of the Intellectual Property and Communications Law Program at MSU College of Law.
“From access to essential medicines to the low-cost availability of copyrighted educational materials, intellectual property-related issues have begun to dominate the international policy debate,” he said. “Today, one can no longer make a full assessment of intellectual property policies without understanding their global implications.”
Born and raised in Hong Kong, Yu will also participate in other events held during the ministerial meeting.
The conference is jointly organized with the China Information Technology & Law Centre at the Faculty of Law of the University of Hong Kong and sponsored by the law firm of Deacons in Hong Kong.
“We are very pleased to be a partner in this important event held just at the right time.” said Johannes M.M. Chan SC, Dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of Hong Kong. “A major challenge these days is whether the intellectual property regime, which serves to encourage innovation, is now restricting dissemination of knowledge and hence discouraging innovation. The balance between protection of private right and public interest raises continuing debates which may have the most profound impact on humanity.”
The China IT & Law Centre is a joint Centre of the Department of Computer Science and the Faculty of Law of the University of Hong Kong. The Centre’s mission is to provide public service in the interdisciplinary area of information technology and law, and to advance research in the relationships between information technology and law.The Centre’s work encompasses all aspects of information technology and law, including computerization of legal information on the Internet, intellectual property and computer forensics. The centre is in close collaboration with the Centre for Information Security and Cryptography of the Department of Computer Science, which specializes in developing technologies relating to digital signature, data security and digital evidence.
Founded in 2003, the Intellectual Property & Communications Law Program at MSU College of Law is a nationally ranked program focusing on the intersection of intellectual property and communications law. The program boasts a full-time faculty of leading intellectual property and communications law scholars and features more than 25 courses in the field. It also offers a master’s program in intellectual property and communications law for both lawyers and non-lawyers and joint academic programs with other MSU colleges – the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law and Grand Valley State University.
MSU College of Law was founded as the Detroit College of Law in 1891. To extend its commitment to educational excellence, the college affiliated with MSU in 1995 and moved to campus in 1997. The move enabled the law college to build state-of-the-art facilities and to provide the benefits of a Big Ten campus. The law college strengthened its affiliation with MSU in 2004, becoming more closely aligned academically. The association between the two schools has led to a comprehensive interdisciplinary legal education program at the law college. Today, the college is one of only two private law schools to be affiliated with a major international research university.
The Faculty of Law of the University of Hong Kong was the first law school in Hong Kong and one of the most prestigious law schools internationally. First established in 1972 as a Department of Law in the Faculty of Social Sciences, it became a School of Law with an autonomous Board of Studies in 1978, and a Faculty of Law on July 1, 1984. Today, the faculty has over 50 full-time academic staff and about 1,100 students.It has two departments, the Department of Law and the Department of Professional Legal Education, and four research centers: the Centre for Comparative and Public Law, the Asian Institute of International Financial Law, the China Centre of Information Technology and Law, and the Peking U-HKU Research Centre. The Faculty offers a four-year LL.B. program, three double-degrees programs, a professional qualification program, a variety of taught master’s programs focusing on human rights, Chinese law, corporate and financial law, information technology and intellectual property. It also offers various research postgraduate programs, including M. Phil., Ph.D. and S.J.D.
For information about the conference, contact Yu at peteryu@law.msu.edu, or visit the Web site of the Faculty of Law of the University of Hong Kong at www.hku.hk/law