July 30 2025
Ep3 Tim’s Travails: “The China Factor” is our topic today with guest Thomas Moga, a pioneer in protecting and enforcing IP rights in China
July 2025 — This month on IP attorney and author Timothy Trainer’s podcast/video show we meet patent attorney Thomas Moga
Today’s Topic: The China Factor and what might happen next
Tim will talk with Tom about: With his latest book being The China Factor, Tim has deep insights into the inner workings of international trade. Today, he’ll dive deep into the current state of affairs in 2025 and will share with the audience insights from Tom, who has more than 30 years’ experience in domestic and international IP portfolio development and enforcement.
- What got you interested in China?
- What was it like to be a Fulbright Scholar living in China?
- What prompted the need to get a degree in biochemistry after getting a law degree?
- Looking back over the past few decades, have you noticed China’s move up the value chain through your work?
- How did you become the Special Assistant Attorney General for Intellectual Property for the state of Michigan?
Don’t miss it!
About our guest: Thomas Moga is a pioneer in protecting and enforcing IP rights in China. He has represented foreign companies there since the 1980s. He is an experienced patent prosecutor in the mechanical, chemical, biochemical, and pharmaceutical arts and testifies as an expert witness in patent disputes.
As an IP portfolio developer, Tom’s experience includes the development of domestic and foreign patent portfolios primarily through the drafting and prosecution of patent applications for filing in the United States and abroad. He also oversees a team that specializes in receiving and filing patent applications with the USPTO on behalf of foreign applicants. The U.S. filing team includes experienced attorneys, paralegals, and a China-born engineer who was a patent examiner with China’s patent office (CNIPA).
Tom’s experience also includes the acquisition of registrations for trademarks and copyrights, licensing, and policy development both at home and abroad.
In the arena of IP rights enforcement, Tom manages a team responsible for patent enforcement and anti-counterfeiting, primarily in Asia, through the identification, monitoring, and halting of counterfeiting activity. Specific activities of the anti-counterfeiting team include:
- identifying unauthorized advertising and sales activity on the internet;
- monitoring and charting such activity in order to develop an anti-counterfeiting action plan;
- overseeing initial counterfeit product investigation once infringers are identified;
- selecting and working with local investigators;
- selecting and working with local counsel;
- preparing administrative and judicial documents; and
- participating in raids.
Tom was a Fulbright Scholar in China, where he taught patent law at Jilin University and acted as a foreign advisor to China’s patent office. He was a visiting foreign expert in law at Xiamen University, China, and worked as a foreign legal expert for a patent and trademark law office in Taipei, and is a past board member of the American Intellectual Property Law Association, the Fulbright Association, and the Fulbright Academy. In 2018, he was appointed by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to serve on the Industry Trade Advisory Committee on Intellectual Property Rights (ITAC 13). As the only representative on the committee for the U.S. automotive industry, Tom’s contributions include analyzing national trade positions and providing advice on a broad array of trade issues as they relate to IP for both the White House (by way of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative) and the Department of Commerce in pursuit of trade agreements that benefit U.S. businesses, workers, and the economy. Learn more about Tom here.
Photos of Tim by AnnaGibbs.com
About Tim’s Travails: In this podcast/video sereis, IP attorney and author Tim Trainer introduce us to experts around the country who have insight into the law, international trade, and more, to help us better understand our world in 2025 and beyond.
Tim, himself, fits the bill for he worked for three decades for the US government and private law firms focusing on international trade, and has developed a deep understanding of global economics and politics.
Writing books is his passion. The author of seven books as of 2025, he has penned several non-fiction tomes, including his first book, Customs Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights; the 15th edition was published in 2020. Thomson Reuters’ Aspatore Books published Tim’s next title in 2015, Potato Chips to Computer Chips: The War on Fake Stuff. Fiction was a genre he always wanted to try. In 2017, Pendulum Over the Pacific was released by Joshua Tree Publishing. “This political intrigue story is set in Tokyo and Washington, D.C., and centers on trade tensions between the U.S. and Japan in the late 1980s,” Tim explains. In 2023, his first series hit bookstores: The China Connection. In December 2024, he followed it with The China Factor.
Stay tuned for more episodes on InkandescentRadio.com and Inkandescent.tv, and of course, log in regularly for new blog entries and other information on Tim’s website, www.TimothyTrainer.com.
