Representatives from Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea, said their recent visit to the Washington University School of Law provided invaluable insights into the nuances of U.S. intellectual property law.
"We are the first graduate program in intellectual property and law in Korea but don't yet have the professional manpower quantitatively and qualitatively," said Jung-Gun Kim, dean of Yonsei's Graduate School of Intellectual Property and Law. "I wanted the students to meet and be exposed to some of the renowned experts in the world in this field."
Kim said members of Yonsei's Senior Intellectual Property Management Program chose to make the trip to Washington University because they are familiar with Washington University Professor Charles R. McManis, J.D., an expert in intellectual property law and unfair trade practices, particularly in Korea, China, Japan and Taiwan.
"Professor McManis played a bridge role to expose our students to a newly developed area about which we are admittedly far behind," Kim said.
McManis said he first met Kim and other faculty members at Yonsei University in the summer of 1994 after attending an institute in intellectual property law in Korea. McManis' visit helped further an existing rapport with Yonsei. That university's president, Ja Song, D.B.A., is a graduate of the John M. Olin School of Business. Yonsei graduates have attended the School of Law's LL.M. program for international students and J.S.D. program.
McManis said the Korean group's trip here last month was a tremendous opportunity for the School of Law and signifies the increasingly global nature of intellectual property issues, particularly for Asian businesses that export into the United States.
"The visit is important as a purely academic matter, but also from a practical standpoint. People in Asia who do business here are really interested in U.S. law," McManis said. "There is a perception that the law really works over here and the legal protection offered is really valuable."
Law school Dean Dorsey D. Ellis Jr., J.D., said he hopes the visit will pave the way for future exchanges.
"As our globe continues to shrink, we increasingly view ourselves as an international law school," he said. "We are expanding our involvement with people throughout the world and particularly in the Asia-Pacific region."
The daylong conference included presentations, translated into Korean by an interpreter, on U.S. trademark, trade secret, copyright and patent law. McManis gave a general overview and explained the differences between Korean and U.S. law, as well as how to obtain, maintain and exploit intellectual property protection in the United States.
An expert in patent law and a professor at Wayne State University's School of Law, Martin Adelman, J.D., discussed obtaining and enforcing patents in the United States, as well as the role of juries in patent litigation. Charles H. Fendell, J.D., an expert in copyright law and a partner in the St. Louis firm of Lewis, Rice & Fingersh, spoke on legal considerations in marketing computer software. Fendell, a School of Law alumnus and one of McManis' former students, also is an adjunct professor of law at Washington University.
Seminar attendee and Yonsei Professor Tae-Seung Paik said he gained a deeper understanding of U.S. law, including which types of intellectual property are protected under state law and which are protected under federal law.
"The visit here is a significant factor in the students' education because Korean businessmen have disputes with Americans with respect to patent litigation," he added.
During the seminar, Korean visiting scholars and law students at Washington University served as hosts, translators and tour guides for the nearly 30 members of the Yonsei graduate program -- many of whom were accompanied by spouses.
With Gyooho Lee, a student in the J.S.D. program, translating, participant Hae-Nan Lee said he would share what he learned with fellow business leaders in Korea. An inventor of an automatic window opener for cars and an exporter of toys and stationery to the United States, Hae-Nan Lee added that he would put the knowledge he gained to immediate use.
"When I manufacture and export products in the U.S., I will benefit from a comfortable understanding of the law," he said. "I am very impressed with the jury system. It is a much more rational method than in Korea."
With first-year law student Kyung Kwak translating, seminar attendee Kyung-Ok Pyo, who owns a construction company in Korea, said the program gave him a much better understanding of the law in its changing global context.
In addition to attending the seminar arranged by McManis, the group's visit was highlighted by a tour led by Ellis of the new law school building, Anheuser-Busch Hall, including a view of the nearly completed Janite Lee Reading Room. The reading room is named in recognition of the generosity of Korean-born Janite Lee, the mother of law school alumnus and current LL.M. student Eunkyong Choi.
The conference ended with the awarding of certificates to the attendees, who are required to observe a foreign intellectual property law program for their course work, and presentations by the Korean contingent of traditional -- as well as some unusual -- gifts.
"Among the gifts to the School of Law were inventive products that some of the business people produce. They are a really good illustration of innovation -- a ball point pen with a light so that you can write in the dark, a variety of ginseng tea, and a food treatment that eliminates fish odors," McManis said. "The businessman who brought the fish odor product turned to me and proudly said, 'No. 1 in Korea.'"
-- Ann Nicholson
Please send comments and suggestions to: