Mr Jason Yao > Wanhuida Intellectual Property > Beijing, China > Lawyer Profile

Wanhuida Intellectual Property
YIYUAN OFFICE BUILDING, FRIENDSHIP HOTEL
NO 1 SOUTH ZHONGGUANCUN STREET, HAIDIAN DISTRICT
BEIJING 100873
China

Position

Partner & a member of the firm’s Management Committee

Career

Jason YAO is a Partner at Wanhuida Intellectual Property and a Member of the firm’s Management Committee. He is also the managing partner of the firm’s Shenzhen Office and Hong Kong Office. Mr. YAO’s practice covers a wide range of intellectual property matters, including litigations on disputes over trademarks, patents, copyrights and trade secrets, investigation and enforcement against trademark counterfeiting, patent infringement and piracy through administrative and criminal actions, licensing, transferring and acquiring trademarks, patents and copyrighted works; handling compliance programs and government investigations on unfair competition and antitrust matters; providing advices on corporate governance, government relation, and crisis management.

He has been highly regarded by clients for his profound knowledge of intellectual property issues, his sense of urgency and responsibility, and his comprehensive approach in dealing with complex legal issues.

Mr. YAO has a unique combination of in-house and outside counsel experience in managing intellectual property portfolios and corporate legal matters for both multinational and Chinese companies. Mr. YAO joined Proctor & Gamble Company as an in-house legal counsel after law school in 1996. He led the brand protection team in China and handled more than a thousand cases in 7 years, some of which were the very first such type of intellectual property cases in some local cities and provinces. After finished his advance education in intellectual property law at Boston University School of Law, Mr. YAO joined Gillette Company as the general counsel for the Greater China region, where he handled the most complicated investigation and enforcement against a counterfeit syndicate and worked closely with the management team in consolidating the joint ventures creatively. After Gillette merged into Procter & Gamble Company, Mr. YAO joined Acushnet Company, the world’s largest golf product manufacturer, where he served as the leading counsel for both intellectual property and general legal matters in the Asia/Pacific region. He successfully coordinated the major US golf manufacturers and put together a comprehensive program for fighting cooperatively and collectively against counterfeit and pirated products in the region and achieved significant results.

Mr. YAO served in the Quality Brands Protection Committee (“QBPC”) of China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment as the various committee vice chairman, the Legal Committee Chairman and the QBPC Vice Chairman for over 10 years and had worked with the legislative authorities, the judicial departments and government enforcement agencies for the improvement of the legislation and enforcement concerning intellectual property rights protection in China.

Mr. YAO is a frequent speaker in many international and domestic conferences and seminars on intellectual property issues, corporate governance and other various legal topics. He is also committed in building connection with law schools and having regular communications with the law students regarding intellectual property protection and legal profession.

Since 2020, Mr YAO has been selected as a recommended lawyer in The Legal 500 Asia Pacific editorial and ranked by World Trademark Review as a recommended individual in the category of enforcement and litigation. He is also listed as one of the Top 15 IP Lawyers in China by the Asian Legal Business magazine in 2020.

In 2021, Mr YAO adds to his list of publications “Court sentences defendants to a total of 42 years in prison following largest-ever raid against online counterfeit golf products sellers” and “ABB wins rare private criminal prosecution and puts counterfeiter in jail for three-and-a-half years”.

In 2022, Mr YAO authored a few articles including “Wenzhou court awards Siemens Rmb1 million in civil suit”, “Developing a multiplatform approach to counterfeiting”, “Uprooting the entire counterfeiting network by chasing online sellers: case study of recent success by US golf anti-counterfeiting group”, among others.

Languages

English, Chinese

Memberships

INTA, ACLA & IACC

Education

LLM (intellectual property law), Boston University School of Law