Prof. Jeff Lefstin Serves as Lead Foreign Intellectual Property Expert in Beijing

Prof. Jeff Lefstin has returned to UC Hastings from China after serving as a lead foreign Intellectual Property expert at a high-level conference titled "Intellectual Property Management of Government-funded Scientific Research Projects." The conference, organized by the Intellectual Property Affairs Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), was held in Beijing, Dec. 13-14.

Helping to organize the conference was Zhao Zhihua, a Hastings LL. M. graduate and researcher at the Intellectual Property Center at the Ministry of Science and Technology.

"Hastings attaches great importance to legal exchange between the United States and China," said UC Hastings Chancellor and Dean Frank H. Wu. "There is much to be gained when the two nations cooperate."

Lefstin's keynote, "Alternative Models of Technology Transfer under the Bayh-Dole Act," shed light on some of the perceived shortcomings of the standard university technology transfer office in promoting innovation. He also presented alternative models that have been implemented at institutions such as MIT, UC San Francisco, UC San Diego, and the University of Southern California.

"China has just enacted an equivalent to the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 - the statute that gives universities patent rights in technology developed with federal funds," explains Lefstin. "Since the Bayh-Dole Act has both been viewed as the key to development of fields like biotechnology, and the subject of debate and criticism as it reaches its 30th anniversary, the Ministry of Science and Technology was very interested in learning about the United States' experience."