Multi-million dollar technology licensing agreement was in danger of collapse. That was in late September 2001, a few months ago, the university (UWO's) Office of industrial relations of Western Ontario signed a conditional agreement with a major pharmaceutical company operating throughout the People's Republic of China (PRC). The agreement allowed the company to use specific technology developed at UWO in health products for sale throughout China. The agreement was due to ratification was signed no later than October 31, 2001 - but during this period, terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In the months immediately following September 11, 2001, China's appetite for the purchase of Western technology to greatly diminished, and the PRC Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Development continues to delay the ratification of the agreement. Lawyer UWO, Peter Ross, asked his university to put the scope and possible alternative courses of action in which the decision can be made as to what the university can do in this situation. The learning objectives of the case are: 1) to understand the forms of intellectual property (IP), which may be involved in international cooperation, the potential difficulties and risks involved in the exchange of IP, types of agreements that can be compiled to minimize the risks and legal framework in which differences can be resolved 2) to understand how the different partner countries respect or disrespect alleged rights to IP and commercial transactions, typically 3) to develop strategies for coping in this environment. "Hide
by Frederick Keenan, Peter Ross Source: Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation 5 pages. Publication Date: March 20, 2009. Prod. #: 909M29-PDF-ENG
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