The winner of our 2024 China IP Awards IP Firm of the Year firm comes as no surprise: Beijing-based CCPIT Patent and Trademark Law Office takes the award home for the fifth consecutive year. The firm is the oldest and one of the largest full-service IP law firms in China, and it continues to provide strong results in both litigation and prosecution work. The firm’s history dates all the way back to January 1957, when a trademark agency was established within the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, a non-governmental trade promotion organization, to represent foreign companies before Chinese authorities. The agency was the sole trademark agency in China until the mid-1980s. The firm organized a patent agency in the early 1980s, when China began to establish its patent system. The patent agency was authorized as the first Chinese intellectual property law firm to have cross-border representation. In 1993, the two agencies merged to form the CCPIT Patent and Trademark Law Office. The firm, which boasts senior lawyers including president Chuanhong Long and vice presidents Shaohui Yuan and Jianzhong Kang among its leadership, and some 322 patent and trademark attorneys and 100 qualified attorneys at law, is the recipient of many honours and awards, and was a clear winner in this category.

CCPIT Patent and Trademark Law Office is the oldest and one of the largest full-service IP law firms in China, and it continues to provide strong results in litigation and prosecution. The firm has 322 patent and trademark attorneys, with 100 qualified attorneys-at-law. Among its many examples of top trademark prosecution work is a lawsuit that determined that a trademark application by Beijing Jingdong 360 Du E-Commerce, YUN SHU CE in Chinese characters, was rejected by an examiner of the China National Intellectual Property Administration due to simply directly indicating the quality, main raw materials, functions, use, weight, quantity or other characters of the designated goods. After the firm argued that the applied trademark implied the use and function of the designated goods, but can also identify the source of the same, the judge of Beijing Intellectual Property Court ruled that the applied trademark shall granted for registration.

CENFO Intellectual Property Agency is a Shenzhen-based firm with 15 branches in 12 cities throughout China. The team consists of more than 700 employees and more than 400 patent attorneys. In 2023, the firm handled 10,120 trademark prosecution cases, including new applications, changes, assignments, renewals, and licenses, resulting in a high new application trademark approval rate of 89%. “As trademark application services constitute one of our core businesses, the success in this area holds crucial importance in safeguarding customer rights and enhancing brand image,” a firm representative told Asia IP. Among its prosecution cases were 8,000 new application documents, covering sectors including manufacturing, services, retail and others; it also completed more than 3,000 changes, assignments and renewals. It has also reduced its processing time for new applications from seven days to three days.

China PAT Intellectual Property Office was established in 2003 in Beijing, and today has offices across mainland China, as well as in Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Washington. Over the last year, the firm managed more than 4,000 trademark-related cases, demonstrating proficiency in navigating the complex landscape of trademark law for clients across various industries, including technology, fashion, food and beverage, and real estate. Its services focus on the entire trademark lifecycle, from initial consultations and pre-registration evaluations to complex procedural matters such as filing for trademark registrations within mainland China and various jurisdictions, both single and Madrid systems. “We specialize in responding to office actions, conducting opposition and cancellation proceedings, defending against opposition and cancellation actions, and navigating through reviews of refusal and invalidation proceedings. Our team also handles trademark renewals, amendments, customs recordal, and case research and analysis to support our clients’ needs,” a spokesperson told Asia IP.

Unitalen Attorneys at Law handled more than 22,000 new trademark applications in 2023, of which about 17,000 were new domestic trademark applications and 5,000 were international applications. The firm dealt with more than 16,000 cases of trademark renewals and modifications, including more than 10,000 domestic trademark cases and more than 6,000 international trademark cases. The firm houses a large number of attorneys, paralegals and clerks to serve clients from its Beijing headquarters and 22 other offices in China including Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong. With additional offices in Tokyo, Munich and San Francisco, Unitalen prides itself in representing a diverse range of clients from startups to Fortune 500 companies such as Tencent.

In the past 12 months, Zhifan IP Attorneys has filed more than 10,000 trademark prosecutions. Founded in 2018, the firm has more than 400 experienced lawyers, patent attorneys, trademark attorneys and skilled technical experts sitting in eight offices across China including Beijing, Shenzhen, Xi'an, Hefei, Xuzhou and Wuhan. The firm enjoys an excellent reputation of more complicated work of re-examination, invalidation, litigation and e-commerce protection. “Our clients benefit from our experiences in negotiation and enforcement in both offensive and defensive aspects,” a representative said. “And such experiences, feeding back to the basic work, further strengthen our capability of weaving the most effective protection net to our clients' intellectual properties from be very early step of patent drafting and strategic planning.”

CCPIT Patent and Trademark Law Office provided a large amount of evidence in court to prove the popularity of Mast-Jägermeister’s 野格 trademark. The court ultimately determined that 野格 was a well-known trademark in Class 33 and ordered the defendants to cease the use of its registered trademark 野格哈古雷斯. The firm provided evidence to the court to prove that the defendant intentionally infringed its client’s mark and that the infringement was serious. Ultimately, the court applied punitive damages to the defendant in accordance with the law. The decision determined that the plaintiff’s registered trademark 野格 constitutes a well-known trademark and prohibits the defendant from using its registered trademark 野格哈古雷斯 in accordance with the law. The application of punitive damages effectively curbed the infringer’s infringement behavior.

China Patent Agent (H.K.) has a strong legal service team, comprising 160-plus litigators from its legal affairs department as well as various business departments across its headquarters and branch offices; 70-plus are attorneys-at-law. The legal affairs department has 15 other professionals, the majority of whom have an advanced degree; their specialties include machinery, chemistry, biology, electricity, communication and law. The team has won numerous cases at the Supreme People’s Court as well as local courts of various levels across the country including the courts of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Suzhou, Ningbo, and Hefei. A number of cases were landmark cases in the relevant technical fields, and many have been selected as Typical IP Cases of the Supreme People’s Court’s Annual Report on the IP Cases of the Supreme People’s Court.

HFG Law & Intellectual Property practices out of offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin, offering contentious and non-contentious IP work with commercial and corporate law services. The firm advised Mary Kay, a purveyor of cosmetics, in a case against an infringing defendant which had been selling Mary Kay’s products through its online shop, with batch number and service QR codes which had been removed from the packages. The court ruled that the sale of the products with decoded batch numbers and service QR codes constituted unfair competition. “There is not an explicit stipulation about this decoding behavior in the current law and whether decoding products could constitute illegal behavior is unknown. Through comprehensive debate, finally the court held the decoding behavior had violated Article 2 of Anti-unfair Competition Law and belongs to ‘general unfair competition act’,” the firm told Asia IP.

IP March was established in March 2016. In an administrative litigation case against CNIPA, the firm advised SEVENFRIDAY, which applied to register the mark SEVENFRIDAY. CNIPA issued the adjudication, provisionally rejecting the registration of the client’s mark due to its similarity with the cited mark SEVEN FRIDAY. IP March represented its client in filing an administrative litigation with the Beijing IP Court, stating that the cited mark is in cancellation and requesting to suspend the hearing of the case. The cited marks were finally cancelled after three years, so the cited mark is no longer an obstacle to the registration of the client’s mark. The court thus revoked the CNIPA’s adjudication and asked it to make a new adjudication. “The prompt filing of the cancellation against the cited mark and subsequent successful cancellation played a significant role in winning this case,” the firm said.

Kangxin Partners has eight offices across China, offering a range of IP services. Kangxin Legal advised Zoom in a domain name infringement matter. The firm discovered the trademark infringement activities of the infringer, including the registration and use of the domain name zoomcns.com. In the absence of cooperation of the firm’s C&D letter, the firm recommended the client pursue a domain name complaint, which made clear the client’s prior trademark rights, trade name right, and prior domain name right for Zoom, and pointed out the client’s high reputation acquired in the market. After examination, the Asian Domain Name Dispute Resolution Centre supported Zoom’s claim and requested the infringer to transfer the domain name in question to Zoom, which it did. “Domain name plays an important role in the internet infrastructure,” the firm said. “It not only can help the users quickly lodge the corresponding website, but also improve the image of the company.”

CCPIT Patent and Trademark Law Office represented Blue Sky Innovation Group (BSIG), which invented a unique device but did not apply for a patent. During the production of this device in collaboration with Qingdao Forcome Machinery Co., Forcome was involved in some improvements to the product and, without notifying BSIG, covertly applied for a utility model patent for the device. Subsequently, BSIG terminated its production partnership with Forcome, opting to cooperate with Yuchi Company instead. This infuriated Forcome, which then sued Yuchi for patent infringement. The firm advised BSIG to initiate an ownership dispute case for the utility model patent. The main challenges in the utility model patent ownership dispute included (1) Nearly 30,000 related emails needed to be filtered and sorted to reveal the entire factual progression; (2) The email server used by the client at the time no longer existed; and (3) The message header information in the emails sent by the client was incomplete, potentially leading to doubts regarding the emails’ authenticity. To solve these issues, CCPIT distilled a series of the most crucial emails from the nearly 30,000, discovering that several of them were copied to a 163 NetEase mailbox. It facilitated the authenticity proof of other emails by having these few emails notarized within the 163 mailbox. Furthermore, the external communication parties in the key emails – including the design company and patent attorneys – provided testimonies, constructing a relatively complete evidence chain. The evidence was acknowledged by the court, ruling that the utility model patent was co-owned by BSIG and Forcome, and rejecting Forcome’s lawsuit against Yuchi.

Liu, Shen & Associates advised Pfizer as CNIPA issued invalidation decisions respectively for two invalidation cases of patent of the Axitinib crystal, upholding the validity of claims related to the Axitinib marketed crystal. The Liu, Shen biomedical team assisted Pfizer in defending its rights successfully. The cases were represented by partner Zou Zongliang, partner Cao Lili and partner Liu Guojun to appear in court. Team members collected strong counter-evidence and formulated targeted strategies of response to the invalidation requests of different petitioners. It conducted in-depth and comprehensive discussions and analyses of the cases prior to the oral hearing, and the members worked closely together during the oral hearing to fight against more than 100 pieces and nearly 2,000 pages of evidence submitted by Petitioner A and nearly 20 pieces of evidence submitted by Petitioner B.

NTD IP Attorneys advised Toshiba Mitsubishi-Electric Industrial Systems Corporation in a case involving very basic improvement of a power conversion system which can suppress unstable system operation in a stand-alone operation when remaining power of a battery is lowered. In response to the decision of rejection, the firm filed a mere amendment by actually adding the definition of “stand-alone operation” and explained the invention point in detail, finally the case achieved allowance successfully with such mere amendment. It also advised Toshiba Lifestyle Products & Services Corporation in a case involving the improvement of a washing machine with internet connecting function, the difference between the invention and the existing technology is mainly on the graphic user interface of the washing machine, which is merely considered as contributive factor to the inventive step. In response to the office action, the firm explained the improved graphic user interface actually acting a functional part of the washing machine, and therefore shall be considered as hardware improvement. The examiner was persuaded and the case achieved allowance successfully.

Sunshine Intellectual Property has evolved into a leading intellectual property firms operating over the past 20 years. Since its first office was established in Beijing, it has opened offices in Tokyo, Silicon Valley and Houston. In 2023, the number of domestic patent applications it filed exceeded 15,000; relevant clients include Gree Group, Sany Heavy Industry, Changan Automobile, SVOLT Energy Technology, Jidu Automobile, China National Nuclear Corporation, Huaneng Group, CVTE Group, Inspur Group, New H3C Group, Glodon Technology, State Grid Smart Grid Research Institute, Mengniu Group, Tsinghua University, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, etc. The firm has more than 300 patent specialists, with more than 110 members being qualified as patent attorneys, and more than 20 members being qualified as attorneys at law.

Unitalen Attorneys at Law has a significant practice in all areas of patents, including patent prosecution, counseling, licensing, contracts, technology transfers and portfolio defense with financial transactions. In the ranking of the number of invention patents granted by agencies, Unitalen has been ranked No. 1 for nine consecutive years. In 2022, Unitalen ranked first with 15,736 patents on the list of “Number of authorized Patent agents for inventions” released by incoPat Innovation Index Research Center. The relevant patents mainly involved in computing/calculation/counting, telecommunications technology and basic electrical components and other technical areas of patent agency. Since the establishment of the China Patent Award, awarded jointly by CNIPA and WIPO, the patents applied for by Unitalen have won awards many times, increasing year by year. Since 2016, 201 patents represented by Unitalen have been honored with the China Patent Awards, including seven Gold Patent Awards.

China Patent Agent (H.K.) was established in Hong Kong in 1984 is considered one of three pioneering Chinese intellectual property agencies, providing comprehensive IP services to clients in China and abroad. CPA, on behalf of Ericsson, received a favorable 2nd instance judgment from the IP Court of the Supreme Court, which reverses both the 1st instance judgment of Beijing IP Court and the reexamination decision of CNIPA. The subject application relates to a small-formfactor pluggable (SFP) module. The focus of the 2nd instance is whether the subject application possesses inventiveness. In order to facilitate the court’s understanding of the subject application, CPA provided a detailed explanation of the differences between the subject application and the prior art. The court supported the firm’s position. In the 2nd instance judgment, the court affirmed the determination of the distinguishing technical features and held that there was an error in the determination of the technical problem actually solved by Claim 1 in both the reexamination decision and the 1st instance judgment, and the prior art did not provide corresponding inspiration to solve the technical problem. Therefore, the subject application possesses inventiveness. “This outcome holds significant weight, especially considering that the average reversal rate before the Supreme Court for patent administrative cases stands below 6.5 percent,” the firm said.

Co-effort Law Firm has provided litigation support to many of the world’s leading companies in the areas of online game, computer software, chemical, pharmaceutical, IT, coating, media and e-commerce. The team also provides extensive non-litigation support to government agencies, trade associations, cultural organizations and initiatives.

King & Wood Mallesons advised Nokia Technologies and its subsidiaries in patent prosecution and litigation against OPPO. After failing to reach a license agreement, Nokia sued OPPO in multiple jurisdictions. OPPO accordingly filed infringement lawsuits, as well as a rate-setting lawsuit over SEPs, against Nokia in China. KWM is representing Nokia in all the cases in China, including more than 90 patent invalidation cases before CNIPA, more than 15 patent SEP and non-SEP patent infringement cases, and the rate-setting cases before seven courts in China. The cases relate to various technical fields, including 4G and 5G cellular communication, EVS technology, audio/video technology, the FR circuit and internet access. Unlike OPPO, which is using several patent agencies, KWM is the only law firm handling all the litigations and invalidation proceedings for Nokia in China. As of today, more than 70% of Nokia patents are maintained valid during the patent invalidation proceeding.

Noted for its work in patent prosecution, Liu, Shen & Associates is recommended by clients for smooth interactions in terms of workflow management and expertise. Perry Yang, one of the firm’s founders, specializes in patent filing, prosecution and invalidation proceedings in the field of mechanical engineering. Yang has over 30 years of experience and comes highly recommended; past work includes representing a major international toy manufacturer and successfully having two of the client’s trademarks recognized by the court as well-known trademarks.

Unitalen Attorneys at Law has a significant practice in all areas of patents, including patent prosecution, counseling, licensing, contracts, technology transfers and portfolio defense with financial transactions. The firm’s patent group has more than 180 attorneys representing both domestic and international preparation and prosecution of patent applications before the Chinese Patent Office and foreign patent offices. The firm’s lawyers have extensive experience representing patentees and defending against patent infringement claims in patent litigation cases.

Lawyers at Co-Effort Law Firm have a long history of providing clients with service concerning copyright protection, including 49 copyright registrations during 2023. Its lawyers have provided relevant legal counsel services for many well-known enterprises and institutions such as the Publicity Department of Shanghai Municipal Committee, Shanghai Press and Publication Bureau, Shanghai Concert Hall, Shanghai National Opera Center, Shengqu Games, Tencent, Hewlett-Packard Company, etc. In 2001, Legend was introduced into China by Shengqu Games. Through 20 years of operation and promotion, Legend has been built into one of the network cultural IP with continuous influence in the Chinese market. On June 30, 2017, Atos and Lansha Information successfully signed a renewal agreement for the Legend game. Another co-copyright owner of Legend believed that the renewal agreement infringed his copyright, and on August 16, 2017, it applied for a pre-lawsuit injunction to the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court and subsequently filed a lawsuit. On December 17, 2021, the Supreme People’s Court rejected all the appeals of WEMADE Party, and by the end of 2022, WEMADE Party applied for a retrial. On September 23, 2023, the Supreme People’s Court rejected the company’s application for a retrial, and the case was finally settled.

CENFO Intellectual Property Agency’scopyright application efficiency has seen substantial improvement, and its success rate continues to rise. It has undertaken the agency work for over 5,000 copyright cases, with a remarkable 96.7% success rate, effectively preserving the rights of our clients. The following is a detailed analysis and summary of the characteristics and highlights of our copyright work in the past 12 months, aiming to provide reference and guidance for future endeavors. Copyright protection is the core of its copyright work, involving monitoring, investigation, and responding to copyright infringement activities. This includes monitoring in online, market, and other public domains to identify and report potential copyright infringements. It also provides copyright application services for clients to protect their relevant copyrights, including assisting clients with copyright registration and renewal procedures. Its work includes a significant number of cases in high-tech industries such as electronic information, pharmaceutical sciences, and new energy, accounting for over 80% of the total. This trend reflects the increasing emphasis of high-tech industries on intellectual property protection and is a result of our proactive response to market changes and meeting customer demands.

With offices in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing, HongFangLaw is under the leadership of managing partner Xu Zhang. In addition to copyright work, the firm’s services include trademark, patent, court proceedings, licensing, legal risk assessment, contracts, customs and due diligence.

Copyright civil litigation remains a stable practice for Lung Tin IP Attorneys. In the past year, representative copyright litigation cases handled by Lung Tin include a series of copyright infringement cases between Tencent and various video communication platforms, and the first copyright dispute over the transmission of infringing works by intelligent car entertainment systems in China. The series of copyright infringement cases between Tencent and various video communication platforms involved issues such as algorithm push, copyright liability of video platforms, and breakthrough of the safe harbour rule under the existing laws, which currently have major differences in judicial practice and theoretical research. In recent years, with the rapid rise of short video platforms, short video infringement issues have become increasingly prominent. “The prosperous development of short video platforms cannot be separated from the support and cooperation of the copyright industry. This series of cases is of great significance to the protection of the legitimate rights and interests of copyright holders, the standardization of the behavior of operators in the short video industry, and the governance of short video infringement platforms. Through this series of cases, adjudication rules are established at the judicial level, and the development of legislation is promoted,” the firm said.

Shanghai Pacific Legal is acting for a client to build a model case against copyright infringement from an emerging online English education provider based in Hangzhou, in order to deter potential copyright infringers. Shenzhen Kingsun is a reputable educational resource provider in China and is listed in the A-share market in China. Over the years, the client has experienced persistent and severe copyright infringement from an emerging online English education provider based in Hangzhou. Considering there may be following copycats and the ease of perpetrating such infringements, a model case was built to deter potential infringers. As legal counsel, Shanghai Pacific crafted a comprehensive copyright enforcement strategy for the client, from fixing evidence to attending court sessions. Despite receiving a C&D letter, the infringer continued their infringing activities, leaving the firm no choice but to pursue litigation aggressively. “Throughout the case, we customized a litigation strategy and adjusted it based on the development of the case. With the amendments to the copyright law in China, we collected evidence regarding the infringer’s maliciousness and built a substantial ground to claim punitive damages,” the firm said.

An, Tian, Zhang & Partners works closely with foreign law firms and counts multinational companies amongst its loyal client base, which covers industries such as food and drink, fashion, agriculture and chemical, automobile, energy, pharmaceuticals and life science, and retail. The firm recently undertook a successful enforcement raid action on trademark infringement on behalf of Peanuts Worldwide. The infringer, Guangzhou Snoopy Daily Necessities Co., pre-emptively registered the client’s mark 史努比, and used this name not only as the company name, but also marked the product with text and cartoon dog graphics similar to the registered trademark of the client, the behaviour of which is suspected of infringing on the exclusive trademark rights of Peanuts. What’s more, the adverse party also marked the registered trademark logo ® on the unregistered trademark 米奇史努比. Guangzhou Baiyun District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau determined in accordance with the law that the party’s use, production, and operation of unregistered trademarks as registered trademarks, and infringement of products with exclusive rights to registered trademarks constitutes the fifth violation of the Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China. For trademark violations mentioned in Article 12 and Article 57 (2), in accordance with the provisions of Article 52 and Article 60 (2) of the Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China, the person shall be ordered to cease trademark infringement. For illegal activities, the infringing products involved in the case were confiscated and an administrative penalty of Rmb57,584 (US$8,000) was imposed. “This case is significant as it demonstrates the effective use of administrative law enforcement methods to crack down on the illegal use, production, and operation of unregistered trademarks and products that infringe on the exclusive rights of registered trademarks,” the firm said.

IntellecPro IP Agency advised Shenzhen Xunlin Culture & Entertainment Co., which has incubated many popular art toys, namely, Farmer Bob, RiCO, ShinWoo, zZoton, Fluffy Acorn, and Agan. It was found that Dongguan Feihong Animation Technology Co. has manufactured parts of Farmer Bob figurines. The client reported the sighting to its local Culture, Broadcasting, Tourism and Sport Bureau and Public Security Bureau, which raided the factory on January 28, 2021. Since the amount of toy parts seized exceeded the criminal threshold for copyright infringement, a criminal investigation was opened. The client approached the firm in March 2022 because the case did not progress as quickly as expected. Eventually, the Guangdong Dongguan 1st Intermediate People’s Court rendered a decision on May 26, 2023, confirming Li Liu, the legal representative of Feihong, committed the crime of copyright infringement, and sentenced Liu to one year and 9 months in prison and fined him Rmb350,000 (US$48,300). The challenge of the case was that Liu argued that no finished products (i.e. Farmer Bob figurines) were seized by the police, therefore the crime was not completed, thus should be exempt from penalty. The firm argued that the parts are ready to be assembled into identical copies of the client’s copyrighted work, which indicates that the Liu has actually copied the client art work.

Founded in the early 1990s, Jingtian & Gongcheng is a full-service business law firm headquartered in Beijing. JTGC advised a leading Chinese public blockchain institution Conflux and the digital platform under it, Taopai, to provide various legal and compliance services, to safeguard the business in a healthy and sustainable way. JTGC was involved in NFT projects including but not limited to project structuring and planning, especially the platform/shop module, and various NFTs in art, fashion, sports, games, banking services, movie and TV plays, including commercial projects including advising, drafting agreements, dispute resolution, intellectual property rights protection and anti-infringement handling, etc. It also assisted Intchains to structure, build up and manage its IP assets. The company had previously lacked IP awareness and an IP strategy. JTGC advised Intchains from a fight against a malicious U.S. trademark registration application, then assisted it to structure, build up and manage its trademark assets in various jurisdictions, not only to get them protected, but also as a defense for malicious stealing of its IP assets and properties.

Lung Tin IP Attorneys is one of the first private Chinese IP firms approved by the government to represent international clients in China. These days, the firm is a prominent full-service IP firm led by founding partner and president Tai Keung Cheng. Among its team, there are former judges who have heard a large number of patent dispute cases, former senior examiners of the Patent Reexamination Board of the State Intellectual Property Office, former intellectual property directors with multinational enterprises and senior lawyers who have been engaged in patent litigation for more than 10 years. Lung Tin also has more than 40 experienced lawyers who are qualified both as a patent attorney and a lawyer. In addition, it has a strong patent infringement investigation team, which has been established for more than a decade. It can directly achieve seamless docking with lawyers and patent agents, conduct rapid, timely, and accurate evidence collection, and provide support for the final victory in major lawsuits.

Unitalen Attorneys at Law advised Fidlock in a lawsuit against Hualian Clothing Accessories Enterprise Co. before the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court, claiming that the magnetic fasteners manufactured and sold by Hualian Clothing infringes Fidlock’s four patent rights entitled “Mechanical magnetic connection structure with load protection”, “A locking device for connecting two components”, “A locking device for disconnectable connection of two components” and “Closing device”. In the complaint, Fidlock required Hualian Clothing to immediately stop infringing the patent rights involved, and compensate Fidlock for its economic losses and reasonable expenditure for rights enforcement Rmb4 million (US$552,000). On June 30, 2023, the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court ruled that the defendant Hualian Clothing should immediately stop the infringing act and compensate the plaintiff Fidlock for economic losses of Rmb1 million in total.

Global Law Office represented the Jemincare Group as its subsidiary Shanghai Jiyu Medical Technology Co. to reach an exclusive cooperation agreement with Orion Corporation, under which Orion will obtain the rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize a new non-opioid analgesic drug (JMKX000623) independently developed by Shanghai Jiyu outside the Greater China region. According to the agreement, Orion will pay a down payment of €15 million (US$16.05 million) to Shanghai Jiyu and pay the corresponding development milestone payment and commercialization milestone payment when reaching the milestone stipulated in the agreement. In addition, Shanghai Jiyu will also receive a commercialization commission of 8-15 percent of the net sales of the cooperative products in the cooperative area. It also represented Jiangsu Alphamab for the signing of a license agreement with 3D Medicines and Glenmark. Jiangsu Alphamab and 3D Medicines (together as the licensors), completed the signing of a license agreement with Glenmark Specialty S.A. (GSSA), a subsidiary of Glenmark for KN035 (Envafolimab) for India, Asia Pacific (except Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia), the Middle East and Africa, Russia, CIS, and Latin America. The firm is headquartered in Beijing, with branches in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Chengdu.

Tee & Howe Intellectual Property Attorneys advised the licensor, a Hong Kong entity (Party A), which wanted to license its patents to a corporation in mainland China (Party B). Before drafting the agreement, the firm had extensive correspondences with Party A, answering its inquiries about technology export, the “must-do’s” of the agreement, and advised Party A how to negotiate with Party B thereafter. Once the two parties achieved an initial agreement, the firm drafted the agreement for both parties’ consent. The difficult part of the agreement lies in the fact that one of the affiliates (Party A) would also sign another agreement about technology development with Party C. “Considering the above, our lawyer drafted the agreement meeting requirements by the CNIPA for the recordal, without it being against the agreement about technology development between Party A and Party C,” the firm said. The firm completed more than 15 licensing and franchising cases in 2023.

AFD China Intellectual Property drafted an invention patent application which was selected as a typical national case of invention patent drafting in the recommendation activity of the China National Patent Agent Association for 2023. In the process of drafting this invention patent application, the firm unearthed, on one hand, the technical advantages of the technology disclosure when the disclosure is realized by using specific hardware, and on the other hand, determined the causal logical relationship between the features and technical effects in the technical solution, so as to distill the core inventive points of the solution as independent claims, and to form a number of programs with different levels of protection as dependent claims. Additionally, the firm supplemented the Specification with multiple specific embodiments to fully support the claims. In response to the office actions, the firm prepared effective solutions based on the references identified by the examiner and made further targeted amendments to the application documents. “By persuading the examiner to recognize the inventiveness, we also ensured a sufficiently broad scope of protection. The case went from receiving the first office action to being granted in less than three months. Our efforts in the drafting and prosecution process of this case have been fully recognized and appreciated by the client,” the firm said. This application is one of the client’s most important patent applications. The client focuses on the research, development, production, and sales of integrated computing and storage chips.

In the past 12 months, Beijing Uni-intel Patent and Trademark Law Firm handled patent drafting and filing projects for Huawei, a top company in China, patent drafting and filing projects for Tianma, one of the top cellphone screen manufacturers in China, patent drafting and filing projects for Unisoc, which is one of the top chip manufactures in China, and patent drafting and filing projects for China Mobile, which is the top telecommunication company in China. Many of its patent applications are overseas filings to the United States, the EPO, Japan, South Korea and other such offices.

Haiwan & Partners provided legal services for the production of the motion picture tentatively entitled The Volunteers directed by the internationally renowned director Kaige Chen, which focuses on the People’s Volunteer Army, the armed forces deployed by the People’s Republic of China during the Korean War, and the battles it participated. Haiwen is providing legal services to the full cycle of the investment and development of the widely-anticipated motion picture project; providing on-site legal support on a daily basis; helping negotiate and draft a massive amount of agreements with the actors, vendors, crew members and more. This is one of the largest film productions in the history of the PRC film industry; principal photography is expected to last for more than a year, involving more than 70 leading actors from China and abroad and thousands of crew members. The firm has drafted and negotiated various agreements with top-tier vendors in the film industry, such as Asia’s largest film and television production base, top-tier film special effects companies, post-production sound and visual effects production companies from both China and abroad, as well as specialized teams for stunt filming and extras casting.

Hiways Law Firm, headquartered in Shanghai, was one of the first law firms in China to be approved as a “special general partnership” law firm. After nearly 30 years of development, Hiways has rapidly grown into a comprehensive national legal service institution renowned in Shanghai and developed globally, with significant influence at home and abroad. In addition to offices across China, the firm also has branches Los Angeles, Seattle, London, Paris and Sydney. Hiways has more than 1200 practicing lawyers, most of whom graduated from well-known law schools at home and abroad. The full-service firm is a member of the TAGLaw alliance of independent law firms.

Headquartered in Beijing with offices in across China and in Hong Kong, Tokyo, London, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Almaty, the IP department at Zhong Lun Law Firm has lawyers as well as trademark and patent agents providing a full range of services including litigation, due diligence, licensing, application, strategizing and portfolio management. Equity partner Jihong Chen is a key contact.

Cheng & Peng IP Law Office was founded in 2013 in Beijing. While the firm is not large, it is growing quickly, and boasts clients including world-leading universities and research institutes, top scientists and the innovative entrepreneurs and investors, including Pfizer, Merck, Roche, SINOPEC, Tsinghua University, Sony, General Motors and Toyota. The firm was founded with the intent to assemble a team of high-quality lawyers and other professionals; the firm has 10 registered Chinese patent attorneys who have graduated from top Chinese universities, many of whom have worked for leading Chinese patent law firms. The boutique firm has a revenue of more than Rmb15 million (US$2.1 million) per year, most of which comes from patent prosecution work.

Foundin IP, as a full-service IP firm, handled more than 2,000 patent applications in 2023, mostly for foreign applicants filing in China or for Chinese applicants filing abroad. The firm has a growing reputation for its understanding of technology, thanks to patent professionals with strong technical backgrounds. The firm advised an Italian company on a CN national phase application. The examiner issued an office action about an amendment beyond the scope. During prosecution, any amendments shall not exceed the scope recorded in the original specification and claims. Examiners normally require amendments to be found directly related to the original application documents. Even if the amended relevant features can be obtained from the attached drawings, the examiner generally does not accept the content determined from the attached drawings. After communicating with the client, the client accepted the firm’s suggestion to delete the amendments that were beyond the original scope, and the patent was granted successfully. The firm organizes more than a hundred seminars per year for its clients about its lawyer’s experiences, new changes and suggestions regarding Chinese practise.

Partners Jason Sun and Robert Chanestablished Sun & Chan Intellectual Property in May 2016 to provide domestic and foreign clients with legal services for patents (invention patents, utility models, designs), trademarks, copyright and anti-unfair competition. Industry sectors served include machinery, chemistry, biotechnology, medicine, metallurgy, electronics, communication, semiconductors, computer software and hardware. The firm filed more than 500 trademark prosecution cases in 2023, including review, opposition, invalidation and others. Trademark prosecution matters are becoming the main source of the firm’s growth again in 2024.

Way Insight, founded by a team from Peking University and global industry experts, is headquartered in Beijing, with offices in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Suzhou, Chengdu, Changsha, Xi’an, London, New York and other locations. The firm focuses on international intellectual property, specializing in the application and resolution of disputes related to international patents, trademarks, copyrights, and plant variety rights. The firm’s business scope now covers more than 186 countries and regions worldwide, with local lawyers in Europe and the Americas. As of 2023, Way Insight has established a global intellectual property cooperation network comprising 7,800 firms, providing services for tens of thousands of intellectual property outbound cases annually, with service numbers growing quickly.

Established in 1999, Advance China IP Law Office has offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Silicon Valley. With more than 1,000 IP professionals, the firm is led by founder and managing partner Jie Hu, supported by over 15 partners including Minhui Zeng, Shelley Zheng and Kevin Zhou. The firm provides comprehensive IP services covering pre-filing strategy, filing and prosecuting patent and trademark applications, post-grant proceedings, enforcement and litigation. Clients they serve include Toyota, Tencent and Gree.

Shenzhen-based Purplevine IP is a global-facing IP service provider, dedicated to building a bridge for international innovation collaboration and IP value realization. The firm provides one-stop, full-service patent solutions to our clients, covering global patent prosecution, IP analysis and consulting, IP investment, IP transaction, licensing, enforcement and dispute resolution. The firm has more than 400 team members, located in 10 offices worldwide. As an internationally integrated IP service provider with a solid footing in both law and technology, Purplevine offers a wide selection of professional, innovative and practical solutions to meet its clients’ needs.