Professor Mark F. Schultz is the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company Endowed Chair in Intellectual Property Law and the Director of the Intellectual Property and Technology Law Program at the University of Akron School of Law. He teaches and writes primarily in the area of intellectual property. Prior to coming to Akron, he was a professor at Southern Illinois University School of Law for 16 years and was co-founder and a leader of the Center for Protection of Intellectual Property (CPIP) at George Mason University in Washington, D.C., where he remains a non-resident Senior Scholar. He also serves as a Senior Fellow of the Geneva Network, a UK-based think tank focused on international IP, trade, and public health.
His research concerns the law and economics of the global intellectual property system. Among other projects, he worked with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to co-author a groundbreaking global trade secret protection index (the TSPI). The TSPI is being used to frame policy discussions on this cutting-edge topic in capitals around the world. Through the Akron Law IP Center’s Global Trade Secret Institute, he co-chairs and organizes an ongoing public-private multilateral diplomatic dialogue on best practices in drafting and implementing national trade secret laws.
As an influential voice in public policy debates regarding intellectual property, he speaks frequently around the world about the connection between secure and effective intellectual property rights and flourishing national economies and individual lives. He has testified before the U.S. Congress on intellectual property issues at the invitation of both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. He has spoken at programs hosted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the U.S. Trade Representative, the U.S. Copyright Office, the World Intellectual Property Organization, and the World Trade Organization, as well as numerous academic institutions, think tanks, and industry groups.
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90% of medicines on the World Health Organization’s Model List of Essential Medicines are off-patent, while many low-income countries have no essential medicine patents at all, according to this Geneva Network research paper.
Never mind chlorinated chicken and NHS contracts – rules around social media companies are increasingly a sticking point for Britain’s pursuit of an ambitious trade agreement with the US.
With around a third of the world’s population in lockdown, humanity desperately needs new treatments to turn the tide against COVID-19.
We don’t want to die poor: that’s how creatives feel about pending copyright changes Artists, writers and musicians stand to lose significant income if laws are changed, while Big Tech will be the big winner
Saudi Arabia thus shows that healthcare innovation happens throughout the world. The work of Saudi entrepreneurs holds promise for solving both economic and health challenges in the Kingdom.
Most countries do not let the owners of sound recordings decide who can broadcast their recordings, nor the price that users pay.
The Innovate4Health project tells the exciting story of people who are solving the world’s biggest health challenges with innovation. The innovations we have profiled have focused on local inventors, meeting local challenges.