This summer the law school dedicated its Chinese Intellectual Property (IP) Resource Center (CIPRC), the first of its kind in the nation, and set out a full complement of programs and scholarship initiatives that are helping bridge the U.S. and Chinese IP worlds.
The CIPRC provides educational and practical legal resources to American and Chinese IP practitioners on Chinese and American IP topics through lectures and workshops at John Marshall, as well as through online/digital content.
Intellectual property has been a focus of our curriculum for more than 70 years. Since 1993, we have been partnering with China’s State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO). The law school and its Center for Intellectual Property Law are uniquely positioned to capitalize on the growing interest of judges, lawyers, academics, and students in Chinese intellectual property (IP) law and IP education in China.
Since officially initiating an educational partnership in 1994, John Marshall has educated more than 500 talented Chinese patent examiners and other legal professionals. These graduates strengthen and cement a better understanding of the Chinese role in the international IP law landscape.
The CIPRC goal is to help John Marshall’s Chinese counterparts develop a broader knowledge of U.S. intellectual property law, while at the same time increasing U.S. knowledge and understanding of the Chinese IP law system and culture. At John Marshall, this exchange of ideas and expertise is a way of furthering mutually beneficial cooperation between U.S. attorneys and companies and their colleagues in China. Such exchanges are also a way of developing respect for the rule of law, while at the same time increasing understanding of the ways that law and society interact in China and in cultures other than our own.