The Legal 500 > Asia Pacific > China > Intellectual property: PRC firms

AFD China Intellectual Property Law Office is home to a strong non-contentious IP practice, which assists clients with filing of IP rights and the maintenance of portfolios both patents and trade marks. Founding partner Xia Zheng leads the 'highly effecient' group and specialises in patent-related matters, while Jingjing Wu heads up the trade mark practice and Hong Long is another key figure in the patent prosecution team. In addition to its strong registration and filing practice, the firm is also active in cancellation and invalidation claims, particularly for trade marks.

An, Tian, Zhang & Partners is a dedicated intellectual property firm based in Beijing. The team, led by David Tian, advises overseas clients primarily in significant disputes pertaining to the prosecution, litigation and enforcement of their trade marks, patents and copyrights. In terms of industry sectors, the group is most renowned for its expertise in the agriculture, automobile and industrial lubricants industries. Also notable are Ruifeng Li and Yang Guo who is particularly known for his work on patent litigation and analysis matters.

AnJie Law Firm recently expanded its offering by hiring Jerry Xia from Honeywell (where he was Chief IP Counsel) and Lan Li from Baker McKenzie FenXun. Led by Jing He, Qinghui Liu, Wu Li and Kefeng Zhao from Beijing, the team has recently secured several high-profile victories in infringement, validity and unfair competition disputes, and has started advising multinational and domestic clients on sensitive trade secret cases. On the advisory side, the firm continues to assist clients such as Beijing Universal Studio theme park with their licensing and exploitation strategies.

CCPIT Patent and Trademark Law Office is a full-service intellectual property firm headquartered in Beijing which provides consultation, prosecution, mediation, administrative enforcement and litigation services relating to patents, trade marks, copyrights, domain names, trade secrets, unfair competition and other related matters. Spearheaded by Hao Ma, the firm represents clients across a vast array of industry sectors. Zhongqi Zhou and Chuanhong Long are also key names to note in the senior ranks. Gang Hu is best known for his work in complex and high-value trade mark disputes, while Ji Liu focuses on patent prosecution.

The intellectual property specialists at Chang Tsi & Partners cover all areas of intellectual property disputes, including trade marks, patents, copyrights and domain names. Beijing-based Simon Tsi is highly experienced in handling complex petitions, retrials and crisis management for Chinese and multinational corporations, and co-heads the offering with Spring Chang who is also based in Beijing. In Shenzhen, David Lee focuses on anti-infringement actions. The team also has several partners based in the US; Kenneth Ng handles the development of strategy and tactics for enforcement, case management and budgeting, and Chenyan Wu is an experienced patent practitioner. Michael Fu and Kaiming Bu were recently promoted to the partnership.

Mingjun Luo leads the IP team at DeHeng Law Offices in Beijing. The group has recently been advising its impressive client roster on patent prosecution, trade mark and copyright registration, unfair competition claims and domain names litigation. Shanghai-based Xinliang Tao is a key name to note for patent matters while, in Shenzhen, Jun Cui has wide experience of both advisory and contentious matters pertaining to both IP and corporate law. Also notable is Min Huang who sits in the Hefei office.

The intellectual property practice at Dentons China is led by patent law specialist Weidong Wang, dual-qualified as a lawyer and a patent agent, and the firm acts for clients on a wide range of IP issues. The firm is strong on litigation, advising both claimants and defendants on disputes involving patents, trade marks, unfair competition and trade secrets. Notable names within the practice include Yuzhou Yang and Feng Liu.

Fangda Partners is best known for handling high-profile IP litigation involving complex legal and technical issues in the IT, computer science, chemicals, semiconductor and telecommunication technical fields. The group is jointly led by Beijing-based Gordon Gao, Richard Yi Lin who sits in Shanghai and Dixon Zhang who is based in the Shenzhen office. Also notable in Beijing are Fang Qi who frequently acts for pharmaceutical, biotechnology, petrochemical, telecoms, and manufacturing companies, and Alexandra Yang. Tingting Liao was recently promoted to partner in the Shanghai office.

Global Law Office is known for litigation involving patent, trademark, copyright and un-fair competition. The firm also has expertise in research and training related to IP law. Notable in this area are Ying Mu, Ping Qiao, Jack Zhanke Li, Hongbin Zhang and Meph Jia Gui. They co-lead the team with with Yonghua Zhang, who joined from Legal Affairs Department of SIPO in 2018; and Degang Ma, who arrived from Jingtian & Gongcheng in 2018.

Han Kun Law Offices advises on full life cycle of a trade mark, from conducting availability search and filing new applications, to challenging or defending in administrative and criminal enforcement matters. The firm has particular experience assisting start-ups and TMT companies with formulating IP strategies and managing their portfolios, including copyright registrations, software registration and enforcement matters. On the contentious side, the department is known for handling patent litigation and IP-related antitrust litigation. The non-contentious practice is co-led by Lili Wu, who joined in 2018 from CCPIT Patent and Trademark Law Office and focuses on providing patent portfolio management and patent enforcement, as well as providing experience in strategically managing patent portfolios for multinational clients; Vivian He, who specialises in handling a range of contentious, non-contentious and transactional IP matters; and Yan Wang, who acts for domestic and international clients and also leads the contentious team.

Hylands Law Firm has an established reputation in the IP space where it handles both contentious and advisory matters for household names such as CCTV, the NBA and ESPN. Based in Beijing, Yuzi Zhu is an expert in IP infringement disputes as well as challenging government decisions, while Zhengning Li is best known for his work in the entertainment industry where he represents directors, actors and artists. Also notable is Han Zhou who was recently promoted to partner in the Beijing office.

The team at JunHe LLP primarily focuses on patent procurement, transactions and enforcement in China in a variety of technology areas including pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, medical devices, material sciences, chemistry, energy, clean technology, telecoms, electronics, software, and e-business. The group is split into the patent department - jointly led by Zhaohui (Zoe) Wang and Jian (James) Zhu; and the trade marks department, jointly led by Chumeng (Jessica) Xu and Qiang Ma.

Kangxin Partners, p.c.'s patents offering is spearheaded by James Chen and Shirley Dong and is divided into electronics, chemistry and life sciences, and mechanics sector sub-groups. On the trade marks side, Gloria Wu's group advises its clients on the optimum strategy for the complete protection of their intellectual property rights across the entire life cycle of their product or brand, and assists with issues arising from online domain names. Also notable is Samson Yu who specialises in patent and trade mark prosecution, due diligence, and counseling.

Lifang & Partners is particularly well known for its strong patent litigation department, which is led by Xi Sun and acts for some of the key players, both foreign and domestic, in the China market. Bin Zhang heads the wider IP litigation team, which also handles trade mark, copyright, and technical contract disputes in addition to the patent practice. The firm also provides non-contentious IP services, including due diligence, licensing, transactions, and registration of IP rights.

The IP team at Llinks Law Offices advises clients on all issues pertaining to patent, trade mark, copyright, domain name, trade secrets, unfair competition and technology imports and exports across a wide range of industries such as telecoms, electronics, software, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and e-commerce. Additionally, the group designs protection schemes for the protection and enforcement of intangible asset portfolios. Also notable are litigators Peiming Yang  and Mark Zhang, and transactional IP partner Xun Yang who advises on IP strategy, outsourcing, competition and data privacy.

The IP experts at Tahota Law Firm specialise in the chemical engineering, electronics, machinery, energy, metallurgy, physics, biomedicine sectors where the team handles litigation, arbitration, mediation and non-litigatious matters pertaining to patents, trade mark, copyright, trade secrets and antitrust issues. Hong Ni leads the practice from Chengdu and represents a varied client base including several government agencies and universities.

Tian Yuan Law Firm advises on the full gamut of intellectual property services including trade mark application and litigation, patent invalidation and infringement litigation, IP licensing and implementation, trade secret infringement litigation, strategic management consultation and IP-aspects of transactions. Practice head Yan Sun is particularly experienced in the IT sector and works closely with Qi Wang who specialises in contentious IP matters.

Unitalen Attorneys at Law is an IP boutique with experience in the procurement, licensing and enforcement of IP rights, as well as expertise in matters related to the infringement of existing third-party IP rights. The firm is also known for advising on patent, trade mark and copyright applications. Notable in this area are Deshan Li, who focuses on patent procurement and patent enforcement; and Bradley Yu, who specialises in trade mark, trade dress, unfair competition, domain names, licensing and anti-counterfeiting matters.

Wanhuida Intellectual Property handles patent and trade mark filings, manages portfolios, and has a particularly strong expertise in the trade marks field where the team advises on matters such as parallel import, fair use, co-existence, liability of online trading platform, super well-known trade mark status, character merchandising and conflicts of rights. Also notable is the firm's strength in the patents space which it regularly handles complex patent disputes for clients including Bayer HealthCare, Decathlon and SEB. Gang Bai leads the practice from its Beijing office with the support of senior partners Hui Huang, Halyan Ren and Sam Li. Jason Yao is also a name to note who divides his time between Shenzhen and Hong Kong.

Zhong Lun Law Firm is home to an IP team which is strong on all areas of both contentious and non-contentious work, covering the whole spectrum of rights beyond the more standard patent, trade mark and copyright issues. The practice is headed by Jihong Chen, Cliff Yang, Weihua Yang, Helen Cheng, and Fanglong Sun, while Jimmy Huang is highly recommended for contentious work, including trade mark litigation, domain name disputes and unfair competition cases. Other key areas of work for the firm include IP licensing, strategic advice on IP rights exploitation, and due diligence on the IP aspects of M&A transactions