The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a United Nations specialized agency, recently commissioned Drake Law Professor Peter K. Yu to conduct a study on intellectual property training and educational programs. Yu holds the Kern Family Chair in Intellectual Property Law and is the founding director of the Intellectual Property Law Center at Drake University Law School.
On Nov. 24, Yu presented a background paper on intellectual property training and educational programs at the International Roundtable on WIPO Development Agenda for Academics in Singapore. He also served as the event’s designated reporter, providing recommendations to the U.N. agency on the design and delivery of training and educational programs.
This international roundtable brings together intellectual property educators from around the world, as well as officials from the WIPO. It aims to identify training needs in developing countries in new and emerging areas of intellectual property.
“Intellectual property plays a very important role in our society,” Yu says. “As our economy becomes more globalized and interdependent, and as socio-economic and technological conditions continue to change, there is an urgent need to better adapt our curriculum to reflect these changes.”
“Coming from Drake University, where we have a very strong commitment to teaching, I am naturally excited about this opportunity to discuss curriculum design and pedagogy with instructors from other parts of the world.”
Before joining Drake University, Yu received the Annual Distinguished Faculty Award by the Student Bar Association of Michigan State University College of Law. He also received the university-wide Teacher-Scholar Award during the 2007 Annual Awards Convocation. Today, he remains the only law faculty member in history to have received that honor from the university.
Yu is currently the general editor of The WIPO Journal, a peer-reviewed journal published by the World Intellectual Property Organization and Sweet & Maxwell.
Yu is also the author or editor of five books and more than 80 law review articles and book chapters. His publications have appeared in Chinese and English and have been translated into Arabic, French, Japanese, Persian, Portuguese and Spanish.
In October, Yu participated in a high-level expert meeting in Berlin, exploring the drafting of an international patent declaration. He also served as a featured presenter at the “China’s Technological Rise” Conference in Shanghai, China, organized by the Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade and the Geneva-based International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development.
Under his leadership, the Drake Intellectual Property Law Center serves as an international hub for research and education in the intellectual property area. In the past three years, peer surveys conducted by U.S. News and World Report ranked the Center consistently among the top 25 intellectual property law programs in the United States and one of the top five programs in the Midwest.