Intellectual Property

Overview
Business Range
Achievements
Awards&Honors
Publications

Practice Overview

Intellectual property (IP) is the core strength of W&H. There are 120 practicing lawyers in the IP team, among which 29 are qualified as patent lawyers. Some of them have served as judges, examiners of the China National Intellectual Property Administration, attorney at legal firms, and intellectual property managers of famous enterprises, and more than half of the lawyers have over 10 years of experience in the field of intellectual property. Moreover, a number of the lawyers are in the list of authoritative legal media and rating agencies, such as Chambers and Partners, ALB, and The Legal 500. Several lawyers have been selected into the talent pools of national or local intellectual property administrations, and local intellectual property protection centers.

Over the years, W&H's IP team has participated in many non-litigation projects such as IP asset acquisition, IP compliance, IP counseling for enterprises preparing for listing. We have also represented a large number of IP litigation cases, and a number of cases have been selected as typical cases by the Supreme Court and other local courts in China. The clients include central state-owned enterprises, state-owned enterprises, well-known private enterprises, and foreign enterprises. Comprehensive and diversified work experience in the field of intellectual property enables the W&H intellectual property team not only to excel in handling difficult and complex cases, but is also able to accurately and deeply understand the needs of our clients and provide them with forward-looking and systematic solutions to empower enterprises and enhance commercial value.

Business Range

The W&H Intellectual Property Professional Committee can provide full-process, comprehensive, one-stop, and value-added intellectual property legal services.

Patent Legal Services
- Patent ownership, infringement, and contract disputes
- Patent invalidation and administrative litigation
- Patent agency
- Patent risk analysis (including FTO analysis) and early warning
- Infringement investigations, administrative enforcement, and customs protection
Trademark Legal Services
- Trademark registration and search in China and abroad
- Trademark reexamination, opposition, invalidation, and cancellation
- Trademark reexamination, opposition, invalidation, and cancellation
- Trademark infringement disputes
- Infringement investigations, administrative actions, and customs protection
Copyright Legal Services
- Registration of works and computer software copyright
- Disputes related to works and computer software
- Infringement investigations, administrative enforcement, and customs protection
Anti-Unfair Competition Legal Services
- Trade secret disputes
- Anti-unfair competition disputes such as counterfeiting, commercial defamation, and false advertising
- Establishment of trade secret protection systems
- Legal risk analysis of trade secrets
Comprehensive Intellectual Property Legal Services
- Corporate intellectual property management and compliance construction
- Intellectual property legal services for pre-IPO enterprises
- Intellectual property due diligence
- Intellectual property transactions and commercialization
- Technology import and export
- Various technology contract disputes

Major Achievements

As of August 2023, W&H has handled over 4,000 intellectual property dispute cases, providing various intellectual property legal services to clients of different types, including central state-owned enterprises, state-owned enterprises, well-known private enterprises, and foreign enterprises. Notable cases include:

01

Represented the first sports event antitrust case—the dispute over abuse of market dominance by the official image partner of the Chinese Super League, selected as a "2022 Typical Case by the Intellectual Property Court of the Supreme People's Court" and included in the "2022 Top Ten Sports Law Events in China".
02

Represented Midea Company in the "Midea v. Liu and Third Party Chigo Company Trade Secret Infringement Dispute", selected as a "2022 Typical Case of Trade Secret Protection by Guangdong Courts".
03

Represented Douyin Group in the pre-litigation injunction case for unfair competition related to the Qatar World Cup, selected as one of the "2022 Top Ten Sports Law Events in China".
04

Represented Tianjin ByteDance in the copyright infringement dispute against Faloo Novel, selected as one of the "2022 Top Ten Copyright Cases in Chinese Online Literature".
05

Represented China National Acrobatic Troupe Co., Ltd. in the copyright ownership and infringement dispute, recognized as the first copyright case for Chinese acrobatic works and rated by the Supreme People's Court as one of the "2021 Top 10 Intellectual Property Cases in Chinese Courts".
06

Represented Shenzhen Tencent Computer Systems Co., Ltd. et al. in the unfair competition dispute against Chuxiong Baixing Advertising Media Co., Ltd. and Yao'an County Xiaofeng Data Studio, selected as one of the "2021 Nine Typical Intellectual Property Protection Cases by Yunnan Courts".
07

Represented Shenzhen Gumi Technology Co., Ltd. in the unfair competition dispute against Zhang Xiang, Wuhan Yuanguang Technology Co., Ltd., et al., selected as one of the "2018 50 Typical Intellectual Property Cases by Chinese Courts".

Awards and Honors

November 2023: Ranked among the "2023 China Intellectual Property and Antitrust Service Capability Rankings: Top 30 Domestic Intellectual Property Law Firms in China".
April 2023: Recognized as a "Notable Law Firm" in the Copyright/Trademark category of the "2023 ALB China IP Rankings".
November 2022: Listed among the "Top 25 Domestic Intellectual Property (Including Antitrust) Law Firms in China in 2022" by the Power-Nation Intellectual Property Institute.
2017-2022: Consistently ranked among the "Top 10 Intellectual Property Litigation Agencies in China" by Chinese intellectual property media IPHOUSE, IPLEAD, and IPRdaily.

Publications

"From Ordinary Trademarks to Well-Known Brands: Comprehensive Legal Planning for Corporate Trademarks"
- 2007
- Law Press China
"Corporate Intellectual Property Management"
- 2007
- Intellectual Property Publishing House
"Practical Strategies for Corporate Intellectual Property"
- 2009
- Intellectual Property Publishing House
"Comprehensive Strategies for Corporate Trademarks: Application, Management, and Protection"
- 2010
- Law Press China
"Ten Lectures on Corporate Trademark Strategy Planning and Practice"
- 2011
- Intellectual Property Publishing House
"Patent Layout and Standard Operations: Innovative Breakthrough Strategies for Enterprises in a Globalized Environment"
- 2014
- Intellectual Property Publishing House
"Viewing Intellectual Property Through a Business Lens: Cross-Disciplinary Reflections of an IP Professional"
- 2015
- Intellectual Property Publishing House
"Patent Operation Practical Decoding Series: Patent Protection"
- 2018
- Intellectual Property Publishing House

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