Mike Peng to Discuss Intellectual Property Rights Between U.S. and China May 2 at WWU

Mike Peng of the Jindal School of Management at the University of Texas at Dallas will discuss intellectual property rights between the U.S. and China from 4 -5:30 p.m. on Monday, May 2, in Parks Hall Room 441 on the WWU campus.

The talk is sponsored by Western’s College of Business and Economics and is free and open to the public.

In response to recent demands for organizational research, the history of intellectual property rights provides the context needed to move forward and develop a more globally generalizable framework for various countries to use.

During the 19th century, the U.S. was not a leading intellectual property rights advocate but a leading intellectual property rights violator. By developing an institution-based view of intellectual property rights history, a leverage of three underlying theoretical mechanisms come into play, path dependence, long-term processes and institutional transitions.

The response from both the U.S. refusal to protect foreign intellectual property rights in the nineteenth century and the current Chinese lack of enthusiasm to meet their demands were rational. However, if the U.S. voluntarily agrees to strengthen intellectual property rights protection, China will similarly enhance their intellectual property rights protection as well. In going above and beyond these two countries, drawing on the history from other countries will provide an improved intellectual property rights framework.

Peng received his doctorate from the University of Washington and is the author of leading textbooks such as “Global Business,” “Global Strategy,” and “Global.” He has consulted for multinational corporations, such as the Texas Instruments and organizations like the United Kingdom Government Office for Science and the World Bank.

For more information, please contact Carrie Cooper, office assistance at the Center for International Business at Western Washington University, at (360) 650-7288 or carrie.cooper@wwu.edu.