Peter K. Yu, Kern Family Chair in Intellectual Property Law and the director of the Intellectual Property Law Center at Drake Law School, will join leading academics and global activists in a public conference on “Trade and Transparency in the Internet Age” at Yale Law School on Monday, Feb. 10.
The event is held in the wake of President Obama’s State of the Union address, emphasizing the need for trade promotion authority to increase exports and create jobs. Yu will share his views on the transparency issues raised by the administration’s negotiation of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement.
Yu will discuss how the lack of transparency in these negotiations is particularly problematic, considering that many of the intellectual property provisions in these agreements threaten to erode individuals’ ability to use the Internet. Concerns over such erosion have sparked widespread street protests in major European cities and an unprecedented, massive service blackout launched by Wikipedia, Reddit, WordPress and other Internet companies.
In addition to conducting research on international trade and intellectual property agreements, Yu has been heavily involved in digital copyright reform in Hong Kong. The position paper he wrote with assistance from three Drake Law students was repeatedly cited in the Hong Kong government’s recently released discussion paper.
In mid-January, Yu met with Hong Kong government officials involved in drafting the new copyright amendment bill to discuss his proposal for a new copyright exception for predominantly non-commercial user-generated content. His opinion piece on the proposal was recently published in the South China Morning Post.
Born and raised in Hong Kong, Yu is a world-renowned expert in international intellectual property law. He serves as the founding director of the Drake Intellectual Property Law Center, which has been ranked by peers among the top 15 intellectual property law programs in the United States and one of the top three in the Midwest.
Yu is an award-winning teacher and a prolific scholar. He is the author or editor of five books and more than 100 law review articles and book chapters. He has delivered lectures and presentations in more than 25 countries, and his scholarly publications have appeared in multiple languages. He currently serves as the general editor of the peer-reviewed WIPO Journal, published by the World Intellectual Property Organization.