Thursday, November 9 from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm, Room 206 — OCOB Professor Steve Whitaker will discuss IP theft and piracy in China (lunch provided).

Click here, here and here for several relevant links from the China Law Blog dealing with IP rights and disputes in Asia that I encourage you to peruse before Dr. Whitaker’s talk as they will give you some things (and context) to think about.  After Dr. Whitaker’s talk, come back this post as I will post some questions for your to discuss!!

Finally, several students have already gone to the central blog for the China trip and posted some great stuff re: Dr. Morris’ presentation last week and/or the CBC show “China Rises”. Please get going on your central blog comments while things are fresh in your mind!  To that end, check out this recent post on the China Law Blog that nicely ties together branding in China (or the lack thereof) to cultural differences.  See/read IN PARTICULAR “David’s” November 5 (5:18 pm) very insightful comment — some great stuff there about flying under the radar in China versus the American branding strategy of cranking out a press release every time something good happens in a company, and think about how this ties directly into what Dr. Morris talked about re: history and how some American firms that do this are running afoul of China’s hesitance/memory of being carved up and invaded by foreign powers - this time economically rather than militarily — and if you have been following the NY Times and Wall St. Journal lately there are signs that China may be slowing the influx of FDI into the country.

An FYI, if you are interested (Dr. Morris emailed me this invite and you are welcome to attend) …

Next week Cal Poly will be hosting a speaker, Megan Greene from the University of Kansas. She will be giving a public address titled “A Government in Motion: Change and Continuity Across the Taiwan Straits.” Her research, including a forthcoming book from Harvard University Press, explores themes of continuity and change in the way the Chinese Nationalist (Kuomintang) party-state governed both on mainland China (1927-1949) and on Taiwan (1945-2000). This question is of importance today as the People’s Republic of China government today looks to the Nationalist model as it attempts to oversee a similar process of economic development. Greene is also co-editor of a forthcoming (Routledge) volume of essays on Taiwan at the turn of the century, entitled Taiwan Enters the Twenty-first Century. The talk will be on Tuesday, 11/14, 12:00-1:00 p.m., UU 220.