Obituary | Rest in Peace

添加日期：2023-03-29 　　浏览量：466

Professor Liu Chuntian was the founder and chairman of the Beijing Sunshine Intellectual Property and Legal Development Foundation. Since its founding, Prof. Liu led the foundation with a mission to rejuvenate the country through science and education, to alleviate poverty and help the weak and to promote the development of intellectual property and law. Under his direction, the foundation carried extensive public welfare activities conducive to the development of the intellectual property discipline, such as funding teaching and scientific research, training talent, organizing exchanges, and setting up scholarships and grants in the field of intellectual property and law. Prof. Liu has made instrumental contributions to China’s intellectual property cause. We would like to thank Professor Liu Chuntian for his dedication to and hard work for the foundation over the years.

Rest in peace, Professor Liu.

Professor Liu Chuntian’s memorial ceremony will be held in Los Angeles, CA. The specific time and place will be announced later. If you would like to learn more, please contact the foundation staff for details.

Contact person and details:

ZHOU Jing: 18911196373 (Beijing)

SHA Jingwei: 13911304004 (Los Angeles, same as WeChat)

SHI Hui: 13301028186

YE Qing: 15611514198

LOU Dongmei: 13011176999

YAO Huanqing: 13910969944

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Obituary

Professor Liu Chuntian, who played an instrumental role in developing and promoting the intellectual property legal system within China, and who was widely recognized as a pioneer in China’s intellectual property law education, died on March 25 while conducting academic activities in Los Angeles, CA. He was 75.

Prof. Liu was an internally renowned intellectual property scholar, Chairman of the Intellectual Property Law Research Association of the China Law Society, and Dean of the School of Intellectual Property of Renmin University of China. He served as a member of the National Intellectual Property Expert Advisory Committee and was also an outstanding jurist and active promoter of international exchanges in intellectual property law.

The specific time and location of Professor Liu Chuntian’s memorial service will be announced separately. If relevant organizations or individuals wish to send messages of condolences, please contact the office of Professor Liu Chuntian Funeral Committee.

Rest in peace, Professor Liu.

Professor Liu Chuntian Funeral Committee

March 28, 2023

Remembering Professor Liu Chuntian, the “founding father” of Chinese Intellectual Property

Professor Liu Chuntian, a pioneer of intellectual property law education in China, who also played a key role in the development of the intellectual property legal system within China, was an outstanding jurist, scholar and active promoter of international exchanges in intellectual property law, died March 25 in Los Angeles, CA. He was 75.

Widely respected and beloved by his peers, his colleagues, and his students, Prof. Liu dedicated his life’s work to promoting intellectual property in China. Prof. Liu served as the Chairman of the Intellectual Property Law Research Association of the China Law Society, Dean of the School of Intellectual Property of Renmin University of China and as a member of the National Intellectual Property Expert Advisory Committee.

During his influential career, he authored text books used as core curriculum for intellectual property courses, charted the course for China’s intellectual property legal system, and promoted cross cultural exchanges.

Prof. Liu first came to Renmin University of China as an undergraduate student in 1978, and would go on to study under the famous civil law scholar Professor Tong Rou during his graduate school years. Prof. Tong Rou shaped Prof. Liu’s outlook: his focus on systematic thinking, an emphasis of the private nature of intellectual property rights, and studying intellectual property rights under the framework of civil law became Prof. Liu’s distinctive academic characteristic.

Born in Leling, Shandong Province, China in 1949, Prof. Liu came of age amidst the Cultural Revolution. He grew up in Beijing, but also spent time working in the countryside. This experience stuck with him deeply, as he saw firsthand that China was still at that time largely an agrarian society, and he started to think about how technology could be leveraged to modernize the country.

As a student in 1984, Prof. Liu joined a World Intellectual Property Organization seminar at Renmin University, where he was first exposed to concepts about IP. In a 2012 interview with Managing IP, Prof. Liu recalled, “There, I saw the importance of having a mechanism in society to put technology and knowledge to work and commerce, and how we need[ed] to have a  good system so that these innovations could be commercialized and used to improve people’s lives.”

In response to the WIPO seminar, Prof. Liu started the first course on intellectual property at Renmin University in 1985. He participated in a top-level design of intellectual property law education in the same year.

In 1986, while sitting on a committee with the Ministry of Education with regards to the law school curriculum, Prof. Liu successfully advocated for the establishment of intellectual property as a core component of a legal education. Prof. Liu then established intellectual property as a major for undergraduate students at Renmin University, and he would go on to train the first batch of graduates majoring in intellectual property law in China.

Outside of Renmin University, Prof. Liu’s influence and thinking have just as wide a reach as well. In 1986, he edited the first textbook on intellectual property rights, and in 2000, he presided over the compilation of the first core textbook on intellectual property rights. During Prof. Liu’s tenure, Renmin University of China created the most comprehensive set of general textbooks for intellectual property law, including unified textbooks for students studying law at higher education institutions of the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Education.  

Prof. Liu and Prof. Guo Shoukang founded the Intellectual Property Teaching and Research Center at Renmin University of China in 1986, China’s first intellectual property education and research institute. In 2008, the Center was awarded the World Intellectual Property Organization Gold Medal for Creativity.

Besides building up the academic arm of intellectual property law in China, Prof. Liu also played a key role in the development of the IP legal system and was one of the most influential jurists in China's intellectual property policymaking, legislation and judiciary. He was heavily involved in the drafting and revision of all separate pieces of intellectual property legislation, such as the Copyright Law, Patent Law and Trademark Law in China.

He presided over the research of the special project of the Outline of the National Intellectual Property Strategy. Prof. Liu once lectured on the Legal Issues Related to the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights and its Amendment to Party and State Leaders at special lectures of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. He also provided a rule of law solution for the National Innovation-driven Development Strategy and the Belt and Road initiative.

Besides his groundbreaking work in China, Prof. Liu was also an internationally renowned IP scholar. He was an active promoter of international exchanges in intellectual property law and believed in the sharing of knowledge. Largely due to his efforts, Renmin University of China has maintained a long-term in-depth cooperation with UNESCO and WIPO. The School of Intellectual Property has become the main supporting institution of the UNESCO Faculty of Copyright and Adjacent Rights and the seat of the Publication Edition Library of the United Nations Intellectual Property Organization.

Throughout his career, Prof. Liu hosted many international conferences and dialogue mechanisms such as the China-US Seminar on Intellectual Property Justice, China-US Intellectual Property Scholars Dialogue, China-US Intellectual Property Summit Forum, Asia-Pacific Intellectual Property Forum, China-EU Intellectual Property Academic Cooperation Mechanism, East Asia Intellectual Property Forum, China-India Intellectual Property Forum. These have contributed profoundly to improving the international reputation of intellectual property education and research at the Renmin University of China.

In 2010, Prof. Liu was awarded the "2010 National Most Influential Person in Intellectual Property" by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce of China, the State Intellectual Property Office and the National Copyright Administration. In 2013 and 2014, British Intellectual Property Management magazine named him one of the "World's 50 Most Influential Intellectual Property Figures.” He was also recognized by the China Copyright Association with the "Outstanding Achiever in China's Copyright Industry" award, and by the American Chamber of Commerce for the "Outstanding Achievement Award in Intellectual Property Education."

Professor Liu Chuntian devoted his life and career to developing and promoting intellectual property in China. His legacy lives on and we can only hope to continue passing the torch he lit.