VZCZCXRO9107
RR RUEHCN RUEHVC
DE RUEHGH #0054/01 0301123
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 301123Z JAN 09
FM AMCONSUL SHANGHAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7574
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 0510
RUEHGH/AMCONSUL SHANGHAI 8203

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 SHANGHAI 000054 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
USTR FOR CHINA OFFICE - AWINTER, TWINELAND, DKATZ; IPR OFFICE - 
RBAE; AND OCG - TPOSNER 
DOC FOR NATIONAL COORDINATOR FOR IPR ENFORCEMENT - WPAUGH 
DOC FOR ITA/MAC: SZYMANSKI 
LOC/ COPYRIGHT OFFICE - STEPP 
USPTO FOR INT'L AFFAIRS - BOLAND, WU 
DOJ FOR CCIPS - TNEWBY 
FBI FOR LBRYANT 
DHS/ICE FOR IPR CENTER - DFAULCONER 
DHS/CBP FOR IPR RIGHTS BRANCH - GMCCRAY 
TREASURY FOR OASIA 
NSC FOR JIM LOI 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KIPR ETRD EINV EFIN SCUL TBIO CH
SUBJECT: SHANGHAI UNIVERSITIES NURTURE NEXT GENERATION OF IPR 
LEADERS 
 
SHANGHAI 00000054  001.2 OF 005 
 
 
(U) This cable is sensitive but unclassified and for official 
use only.  Not for distribution outside of USG channels or via 
the internet. 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary.  A key element of the Shanghai Municipal 
Government's efforts to be a leader in intellectual property 
rights (IPR) protection has been the establishment and support 
of IPR colleges and research centers at several major 
universities throughout the city.  Although these schools train 
an impressive number of students, the programs and quality of 
education have a wide degree of variation.  During a series of 
meetings in recent months, leaders from several of the schools 
discussed their schools' curricula and initiatives, students' 
changing perception of IP issues, the National IP Strategy, and 
judicial IP protection.  Regarding the National IP Strategy 
(released in June 2008) and the subsequently released Shanghai 
IP implementation strategy, the academics said they were too 
general and would likely not have a measurable effect on 
industry.  Academics, recognizing that judicial IP protection 
varied greatly throughout China, rated Shanghai and Beijing 
courts as by far the best based on a number of criteria. 
Despite the IP academic community's welcoming of further 
cooperation with the Consulate, the Shanghai Foreign Affairs 
Office (FAO) continues to stymie formal cooperation on IP issues 
with the schools.  End Summary. 
 
Background on Shanghai IP Academic Community 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (U) Shanghai is home to three IPR colleges, which focus 
primarily on teaching and six IPR centers (based at local 
universities), which focus primarily on research.  The Shanghai 
Intellectual Property Administration supported the establishment 
of the IPR colleges and centers, and it continues to play a 
leading role in determining curricula and research topics.  The 
earliest IPR college was established at Shanghai University in 
1994, and it continues to be one of the most active IPR learning 
centers.  Both Tongji University and East China University of 
Politics and Law followed suit with the establishment of IPR 
colleges in 2004, each with their own areas of specialization 
and varying degrees of success.  The six IPR research centers 
are at Fudan University (founded in 1994); East China University 
of Science and Technology (2004); East China University of 
Politics and Law (2003); Shanghai Jiaotong University (2004); 
Shanghai Chinese Tradition Medicine University (2003), and 
Shanghai University of Politics and Law (2004). 
 
Shanghai University - First IP Program in the City 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
¶3.  (U) The Shanghai University IPR Institute was established in 
1994 and was the first IPR college in the city.  Affiliated with 
Shanghai University's law school, it has a larger staff (10 
professors) and number of students than any other IP college in 
Shanghai.  According to the IP College Director Tao Xinliang, 
there are around 30 graduate students and 3 PhD candidates who 
major in IPR every year.  The college only offers graduate IPR 
programs, but there are also about 200 undergraduate law 
students every year who choose an IPR focus.  In addition, the 
school offers part-time and graduate-level classes on 
intellectual property management, as well as elective courses on 
intellectual property open to students from all majors.  Tao 
emphasized that all the classes are taught with "IP management" 
in mind.  He added the number of applicants for the IPR College 
is growing every year because of the increasing importance of IP 
in the development of the economy and the increasing demand for 
IP experts.  Graduates from the IPR Institute are employed 
across the spectrum of IPR-related professions, including 
courts, government agencies, and law firms.  An increasing 
number of students are choosing to enter the corporate world as 
IP counsels. 
 
¶4.  (U) The main research areas in the college are IP law and 
policy at both the national and municipal level.  Graduate 
 
SHANGHAI 00000054  002.2 OF 005 
 
 
students also research topics related to corporate IP management 
and the protection of intellectual property in international 
trade.  In addition, the college was involved in the revision of 
the Patent Law and the Implementing Regulation of the Patent 
Law. 
 
¶5.  (U) According to Tao, one feature that sets the school apart 
is its established link with a U.S. university. In November 
2005, Shanghai University signed an agreement to establish a 
joint program with the American International Education 
Foundation (AIEF), a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization 
dedicated to promoting U.S. education internationally, and the 
Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT).  Through this program, 
Shanghai University students have the option of pursuing an MBA, 
MPA or LLM degree at IIT, all with an IPR concentration. 
 
Tongji University and its German Connection 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶6.  (U) In a separate meeting, Tongji University Intellectual 
Property Institute Director Shan Xiaoguang described how the 
institute was established in 2003 and is closely linked with 
Germany's Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Intellectual Property 
Competition and Tax Law.  The Institute is heavily oriented 
towards Europe, and many of its professors hold degrees from 
German and British universities.  Shan himself graduated from 
MPI and speaks fluent German.  Tongji University has 
traditionally had close and longstanding ties with Germany and 
was first founded by a German doctor as the "Tongji German 
Medical School".  The Intellectual Property Institute developed 
quickly from its initial three full-time professors to its now 
eight full-time professors, and it is likely to increase to 
fifteen in the near future.  The school also boasts a number of 
regular high-level guest lecturers, including Tian Lipu, general 
director of State Intellectual Property Office, and Chen 
Zhixing, Director of the Shanghai IP Bureau.  IPI hosted its 
first IP forum in 2004, focusing on research in technology 
transfer, patent law, software protection, trade secrets, and 
European intellectual property law.  It also offers consulting 
services to the Shanghai government and private industry. 
 
¶7.  (U) On the education front, IPI, in conjunction with the 
School of Economics and Management, offers a doctorate in 
management science and engineering with a specialization in 
intellectual property and knowledge management.  Shan reported 
that the IP major is quite popular among students.  There were 
about 40 doctoral level applicants for the IP management major 
every year - only four are accepted.  Many applicants have a 
background in chemical and mechanical engineering, as well as 
natural sciences.  IPI also works with the School of Liberal 
Arts and Law to offer a master's degree in law with a 
specialization in intellectual property.  Undergraduates 
majoring in science and engineering at Tongji University can 
also enroll at IPI and gain a dual major in IP.  IPI enrolls 
about 15 graduate students and PhD candidates every year.  The 
students find jobs in academia, law firms, government agencies 
and private firms after graduating. 
 
¶8. (U) According to Shan, Tongji works actively to promote IP 
awareness on campus and throughout Shanghai.  The school often 
holds seminars, meetings and other publicity activities.  It 
even conducts outreach and capacity building with variety of 
local government agencies.  Another main area of focus is to 
provide information and consultation on legislation to the 
central and local governments.  It also analyzes international 
IP protection trends and provides consultation for international 
companies on IP strategies.  IPI gets support from the Shanghai 
Intellectual Property Administration (SIPA) and the State 
Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) via research project 
funding.  The school is also involved in researching national 
patent law revisions.  Shan welcomed the opportunity to further 
cooperate with the US Consulate, particularly noting the need 
for funding of projects and additional educational material. 
 
 
SHANGHAI 00000054  003.2 OF 005 
 
 
 
East China University IP School - Struggling Newcomer 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
¶9. (U) East China University of Politics and Law's (ECUPL) IP 
School and Research Center opened its doors in 2003 and became 
the first to enroll undergraduates in its IP program. Gao 
Fuping, the IP school dean, credits its founding to the Central 
Government's rush to meet some of China's many post-WTO 
accession challenges.  The center enrolled 52 students during 
its first year and has enrolled about 100 students a year since 
then.  There are 11 professors and 3 working groups in the IP 
College.  Its unique bachelor's degree program combines courses 
in management, natural science and IP law.  ECUPL's IP School 
has an ongoing partnership with Johnson & Johnson, which funds 
research, publishing and scholarships.  Rather than championing 
their model to other universities, however, ECUPL's IP School 
dean candidly explained that his program was not very successful 
because students are spread too thin.  He feels that IP programs 
work better at the master's level. 
 
¶10.  (U) According to Gao, ECUPL's IP School is currently the 
only IP college in Shanghai that has three levels of IP majors: 
bachelor's, master's and doctorate.  The majors in other IP 
schools are "IP law" or "IP management," which have a very 
different curriculum from the IP major of ECUPL.  There are 
about 100 students every year who choose IPR as a major.  IPR is 
also a basic course for all law students.  Gao also noted that 
ECUPL's IP School and Research Center lacks funding from the 
Shanghai IP Bureau and, as a result, lacks some basic faculty, 
such as a full-time patent law professor with a natural sciences 
background.  The school has nonetheless demonstrated strengths 
in e-commerce law, IP protection on the internet, and trademark 
protection. The school also emphasized IP research and holds 
several IP-related seminars every year.  The focus of current 
research includes copyright issues in digital industries, 
licensing of copyrighted works, and patents usage as a 
commercial tool.  Professors are also actively engaged in 
compiling a series of IP textbooks. 
 
Fudan University - Well-Connected Internationally 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶11.  (U) Fudan University's IPR Research Center opened its doors 
in 1995 and is the most active of the IP research centers in 
Shanghai.  Independent from Fudan's law school, the center has 
guest professors and part-time advisers and researchers, 
including several from Shanghai government offices.  According 
to the IPR Center Director Zhang Naigen, the center has 
developed partnerships with various overseas institutions, 
including the WIPO Academy, the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of 
Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (Sweden), and the Comparative 
Law Institute of Paris First University.  In addition, the 
center offers Fudan law students a basic IP course in English 
with support from guest experts from Philips Corporation. 
Beginning in 2006, the center offered an advanced patent law 
course for law students enrolled in master's degrees.  Research 
at the center focuses on technology transfer, Sino-U.S. IP 
disputes, e-commerce and Chinese enforcement of WTO standards 
and intellectual property.  Each year, Fudan's IPR Research 
Center hosts a conference on leading topics in IP research. 
 
Shanghai Chinese Tradition Medicine University 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶12.  (SBU) Shanghai prides itself as a center for traditional 
Chinese medicine.  To develop its lead in the field, Shanghai 
established an IP research Center at the Shanghai Chinese 
Tradition Medicine University (SCTMU) in 2003.  Although the 
center does not offer an IP degree, it assists SCTMU faculty and 
students research and register patents on traditional Chinese 
medicine.  The center's director, Song Xiaoting said there are 
roughly 100 Chinese IPR experts focused on the field of 
medicine, including traditional Chinese medicine, and about 20 
 
SHANGHAI 00000054  004.2 OF 005 
 
 
of them are in Shanghai.  At SCTMU, there are an estimated 1,500 
foreign students who study Chinese traditional medicine, most of 
whom are from Japan and South Korea.  There are also about 40 
students from the United States.  Regarding the Patent Law 
revision, Song noted the changes in the law will benefit 
research in traditional Chinese medicine.  He also believes that 
the trend in China is for genetic resource and traditional 
knowledge IP to be used fairly and reasonably.  The best way for 
traditional Chinese medicine research to move forward is 
"cooperative development" on IP issues. 
 
Views on NIPS and Its Implementation in Shanghai 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶13.  (SBU) The IP academics were of the opinion that the 
National IP Strategy (NIPS) is very general and will likely not 
have a measurable effect any one industry, including the 
software industry.  Regarding the NIPS provision for the 
establishment of a national IPR appeal court, Fudan's Zhang 
Naigen said such a court is still a long way off - the Civil 
Procedure Law would need to be revised to establish a national 
IPR appeal court given that such a court would require 
jurisdictional changes.  However, recent changes to the Civil 
Procedure Law did not incorporate this provision.  Zhang also 
mentioned it would take at least three to five years to start 
another round of Civil Procedure Law revisions.  Hence, it is 
nigh impossible to establish an IPR appeal court in the near 
future. 
 
¶14.  (SBU) Regarding Shanghai's plan to implement NIPS, the 
academics also said it is very general in nature and unlikely to 
produce concrete results.  However, they believed more specific 
implementing measures would likely come out later and be more 
useful.  Part of Shanghai's plan includes a provision to set up 
an IPR arbitration unit, which the city accomplished in October 
¶2008.  Zhang said the establishment of a specialized center was 
"nonsense" because Shanghai's arbitration system already 
sufficiently handled IPR cases.  The special IPR arbitration 
unit did not change anything, just consolidated IP cases under 
one umbrella and was more for "political show".  Zhang added 
there is also no such precedent for creating such an IP 
arbitration center in international arbitration practice. 
 
Students' Changing Perception of IPR 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶15.  (SBU) According to the IP academics, IP colleges have 
positive impact on the IP awareness of many students on campus. 
Students, particularly those who enroll in IP classes, gain a 
stronger sense of the role IP plays in boosting innovation and 
generally go on to make contributions in the field of IPR. 
Since students enrolled in the programs hail from different 
provinces in China, they are able to build better IP protection 
in their respective homes and contribute to better 
inter-jurisdictional cooperation after graduation.  The research 
published by the schools also shapes people's views on IP and 
boosts awareness.  Shanghai University's Tao said a good measure 
of this change is IP students' attitude toward buying pirated 
DVDs.  After enrolling in IP programs, students generally change 
their perception of buying pirated DVDs from "indifference" to 
"disgrace".  However, Tao also stated that foreigners are the 
main consumers of pirated DVDs in the first place.  (Comment: 
This is a common comment we hear from interlocutors in Shanghai, 
but shops selling pirated DVDs are also filled with plenty of 
locals.  End comment.)  Professors were also unanimous that 
students' perception towards foreign IP protection is also 
evolving.  In prior years, students largely believed that IP 
protection in China was a result of pressure from abroad and it 
was largely western companies that benefited from the IP system. 
 However, interlocutors all emphasized that China's academic 
community is now focusing on IP protection as a means for 
China's own development and innovation and foreigners' IPR 
should be protected equally. 
 
 
SHANGHAI 00000054  005.2 OF 005 
 
 
Academics' Views on Judicial Protection 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶16.  (SBU) On China's judicial IP protection, academics 
acknowledged that there is a wide range of abilities and IP 
awareness among China's courts.  All spoke highly of courts in 
Beijing and Shanghai, saying they do a much better job than 
courts at other places.  Fudan's Zhang said that there are a 
number of criteria that point to this conclusion about Beijing 
and Shanghai courts: number of cases, case closure rate, 
judgment results, protection of rights holders, and general fair 
treatment.  Zhang also noted that courts throughout China 
generally seek guidance from the Supreme Court on complicated IP 
cases. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶17.  (SBU) Cooperation between the USG and Shanghai's academic 
IP community has the potential to make a real difference in IP 
protection, not just in Shanghai but throughout China.  All of 
the academics with whom we spoke welcome future cooperation 
opportunities with the Consulate.  The Consulate actively 
engages IP institutions on a regular basis; however, our 
attempts to cooperate on formal programs have been met with 
resistance by the Shanghai Foreign Affairs Office (FAO).  Other 
than a voluntary speaker program at the ECUPL IP School in May 
2006, the Shanghai Foreign Affairs Office has refused to allow 
formal IP programs with area universities.  Generally all the IP 
schools require the Consulate to go through the FAO to request 
formal cooperative events.  However, space may be opening. 
Fudan's Zhang Naigen, for example, recently said there is no 
need for the Consulate to go through FAO for formal programs. 
Other universities also appear to interpret the FAO requirement 
differently.  SCTMU's Song said they need to get approval from 
Shanghai FAO only for some formal meetings.  East China 
University's Gao said the approval from FAO is needed only if 
U.S. official wants to give a speech at a seminar.  However, 
there is no need for approval if the speaker is from the private 
sector, even though his or her speaking event may be coordinated 
by the USG.  Given the range of opportunities, the Consulate 
plans to continue pushing the envelope with the Shanghai 
academic IP community. 
CAMP