Prof. Haochen Sun 孫皓琛教授

Professor

LL.B., Zhejiang University Guanghua Law School
LL.M., National University of Singapore Faculty of Law
LL.M., Harvard Law School
S.J.D., Duke University School of Law


Biography

Haochen Sun specializes in intellectual property, technology law, and Chinese law. His wide-ranging scholarship has delved into areas such as the legal status of artificial intelligence creations, access to patented medicines and vaccines, intellectual property rights owners’ responsibilities, and the trademark protection of luxury brands. He is currently working on two new research projects. The first one aims to develop a new ethical framework for regulating AI creativity, while the second one critically examines the epic transformations that have taken place in China’s regulation of technologies. He recently founded the Program on Artificial Intelligence and the Law, a research hub for studying the impact of AI on the legal system.

Professor Sun’s monograph Technology and the Public Interest, published by Cambridge University Press in 2022, puts forward a new theoretical approach to protecting the right to technology and enforcing technology companies’ fundamental responsibilities. He has also worked on five edited volumes, each of which brings forth new research areas in intellectual property and technology law. For instance, Data Sovereignty: From the Digital Silk Road to the Return of the State (Oxford University Press, 2023) reconsiders the nature and scope of digital sovereignty through examining the national, regional, and international legal frameworks for regulating data flows and the digital economy. His most recent publication, Intellectual Property, COVID-19, and the Next Pandemic: Diagnosing Problems, Developing Cures (Cambridge University Press, 2024), presents lessons learned about intellectual property during the COVID-19 pandemic and makes recommendations for retooling intellectual property to better prepare the world for the next pandemic.

An author of over 50 articles and book chapters, Professor Sun is the winner of a number of research output prizes and major research grants and a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A. and Law, Technology, and Humans. He previously served as Director of the Law & Technology Center and the LL.M. in Technology and Intellectual Property Law at the University of Hong Kong, and has organized numerous international conferences on intellectual property and technology law.

Professor Sun has served as a visiting professor at Columbia Law School, the University of California Davis School of Law, and the University of North Carolina School of Law. He has also delivered public lectures at leading law schools in Asia, Europe, and North America. He is an Affiliated Fellow at Yale Law School’s Information Society Project. His opinions about intellectual property and technology law have appeared in a variety of media outlets, including BBC News, ForbesLianhe ZaobaoThe Los Angeles TimesThe New York TimesSouth China Morning PostMing PaoThe Wall Street Journal, Shenzhen Satellite TV, and Radio Television Hong Kong.

Selected publications