Top of page

World Intellectual Property Day

Share this post:

(Matt’s note: The Law Library of Congress is using this space to do a couple of ‘guest posts,’ written by Andrew Weber. The following are his words.)

I was discussing with Dr. Bryan Bachner the other day about the presentation he gave on World Intellectual Property Day at a conference held by the Institute for Policy Innovation. I am really fascinated by comparative law and his discussion dealt with trade issues between China and the United States (I happen to work in a great place for my fascination). He discussed how there is more to the trade dispute than meets the eye. If we push China hard on piracy of items like CDs and DVDs, they could turn around and try to seek enforcement of intellectual property rights for items like Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Bryan was invited to make a presentation on Chinese intellectual property rights during the Trade and Development Panel. His talk focused on the increasing importance that intellectual property rights are playing in the bilateral relations between China and the United States. Bryan serves as Assistant Director of Legal Research for the Law Library of Congress. He oversees a team of foreign law specialists who are from a variety of countries including Australia, China, India, Israel, Iran, Lebanon, and Russia.

Before coming to the Law Library of Congress, Bryan was an Associate Professor of Law at the City University of Hong Kong for approximately fifteen years. He was also the first American to earn a Ph.D. by a mainland Chinese university when he received a Doctorate in Law from Wuhan University. In between teaching and studying, Bryan somehow found time to play professional basketball while in China, though unfortunately not with Yao Ming.

Comments (3)

  1. Anyone who has visited Thailand would be appalled at how intellectual property rights are being violated in this country. From bags to all sorts of softwares, Thailand has a duplicate of anything branded and copyrighted.

  2. Intellectual Property is just not a respected concept overseas. For the most part, even ‘Westerners’ traveling seem to forget that possessing pirated material is illegal. I have found an interesting site regarding My Intellectual Property Rights

  3. I feel there should be more information made available to the general public with regards to the various concepts and aspects of intellectual intangibilities.

Add a Comment

This blog is governed by the general rules of respectful civil discourse. You are fully responsible for everything that you post. The content of all comments is released into the public domain unless clearly stated otherwise. The Library of Congress does not control the content posted. Nevertheless, the Library of Congress may monitor any user-generated content as it chooses and reserves the right to remove content for any reason whatever, without consent. Gratuitous links to sites are viewed as spam and may result in removed comments. We further reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to remove a user's privilege to post content on the Library site. Read our Comment and Posting Policy.


Required fields are indicated with an * asterisk.