Innovation, Investment and Intellectual Property in South Korea ― Park to Park

South Korea known as the hermit kingdom was wrenched from its isolation in the mid-seventies with the forced industialisation of its economy by Park Chung-hee during his dictatorial regime. This led South Korea to becoming the most rapidly industialised country in the world with world class technology and a population who are largely digitally proficient. The course is charted from the rule of Park Chung-hee to his democratically elected daughter President Park Geun-hye who is now on trial for corruption. The legacy of the Park to Park era is not only the most fruitful in Korean history but the most tumultuous, most recently because of the accelerated nuclear ambitions of North Korea. The analysis is through the framework of investment, innovation and intellectual property rights and the double edged sword of cult and rapid action, so central to Korean culture

Prof. Taplin received her doctorate from the London School of Economics and has a GDL in Law. She is the author/editor of 20 books and over 200 articles, and was the first featured author for Routledge in Asian Studies. She wrote freelance for The Times newspaper for 9 years on Japan, Taiwan, Korea and was a consultant to the Federation of Electronics Industry for 9 years. Prof. Taplin studied Japanese at Durham University over 20 years ago as part of a special course for future leaders in the Japanese field in the UK in tandem with the Nissan Institute, Oxford University. She is an Honorary Advisor to the Society for Interdisciplinary Business Research, and is occasionally invited by the United Nations to act as an innovation expert because of her entrepreneurial experience as an innovator.

She is Editor of Interdisciplinary Journal of Economics and Business Law (www.ijebl.co.uk) founded by her seven years ago, in addition to being the Director of The Centre for Japanese and East Asian Studies which won Exporter of the Year 2000 for Partnership in Trading/Pathfinder. Professor Taplin has had a number of visiting affiliations with universities globally including a Visiting Professor at Osaka City University, Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Management, University of Warsaw, Poland, a Visiting Fellow at the University of Mumbai in January 2007 and in January 2008/April 2009 at the University of Bacheshir in Istanbul. In 2014 she was Visiting Professor in Nepal and keynote speaker at a conference there. She has also worked for a number of law firms specialising in IP around the world on a project by project basis using her knowledge of East Asian IP and IP Valuation.

She can be reached at ruth.taplin.ijebl@gmail.com