Past Cultural Achievement as a Future Technological Resource: Contraditions and Opportunities in the Intellectual Property Protection of Chinese Medicine in China

COMMENT PAST CULTURAL ACHIEVEMENT AS A FUTURE TECHNOLOGICAL RESOURCE: CONTRADICTIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES IN THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTION OF CHINESE MEDICINE IN CHINA Benjamin Liu* I. INTRODUCTION The latter part of the 20th century has witnessed a renewed interest in Chinese medicine (CM) both in China and abroad.' What was once dismissed as superstition or the remnants of an unenlightened China has suddenly become the key to providing public healthcare in developing countries and a ray of hope in developed countries. 2 At the same time, entrepreneurial individ- uals and organizations perceive CM as a moneymaking business and fuel for technological development. The Chinese state views its extensive experience with CM as representative of a competi- tive advantage in the post-WTO global economy. Therefore, it is 3 actively promoting CM research, education, and investment. One essential aspect of these activities is the protection of CM as J.D. Candidate (2004) UCLA School of Law. 1. See Kelvin Chan & Jian-Qian Zou, The Way Forward for Chinese Medicine, in THE WAY FORWARD FOR CHINESE MEDICINE 413 (Kelvin Chan & Henry Lee eds., 2002). 2. See Kelvin Chan et al., The Progress of Chinese Medicine in Mainland China, in THE WAY FORWARD FOR CHINESE MEDICINE, supra note 1, at 192; VOL- KER SCHEID, CHINESE MEDICINE IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA: PLURALITY AND SYN- THESIS 3. See Volker Scheid, Remodeling the Arsenal of Chinese Medicine: Shared Pasts, Alternative Futures, in 583 ANNALS AM. ACAD. POL. & SOC. SCI. 137 (2002) ( The Chinese government has envisaged earnings from the sale of Chinese medicines abroad in 2000 to exceed U.S. $80 million and is actively promoting a strategy to increase these revenues in the future. ); GAN ET AL., THE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY PLAN OF MODERNIZATION OF THE PRACTICE AND USE OF CMM (1998).