Background
Wen-Cheng Chen was born in 1933 in Tainan, Taiwan, during the Japanese colonial era that ended in 1945. The island's higher education system was transformed in the years that followed, when the colonial imperial university in Taipei was taken over by the Nationalist government.
The Taihoku Imperial University, which had been built during the Japanese period, was reorganized and renamed National Taiwan University in November 1945, with Tsung-lo Lo as its first president. Chen's later education and career took place within this postwar university system and in Taiwan's legal profession.
Education
Chen received a Bachelor of Laws degree from the College of Law of National Taiwan University, with 1956 recorded as the year his studies ended. The College of Law traces its origins to the Department of Law at Taihoku Imperial University, which operated during the Japanese colonial period from 1927 to 1945. The college describes itself as the first law school established in Taiwan.
After the war, the institution was reorganized under the National Taiwan University name. In 1947 the Provincial College of Law and Commerce was integrated into the College of Law. Before a 1999 reorganization, the College of Law comprised the Department of Law, the Department of Political Science and the Department of Economics.
Career
Chen worked as a partner at Taiwan International Patent & Law Office. The firm's name indicates a practice focused on patent matters, which form part of the wider field of intellectual property law.
Intellectual property practice in Taiwan had its pioneers. Tai E International Patent & Law Office, founded in 1952 as a general law firm and rebranded as Tai E in 1976, was among the firms that helped bring intellectual property law into Taiwan's legal practice.
