Wanhuida Intellectual Property

Wanhuida Intellectual Property is a leading IP service provider in China. It has two main legal entities, Wanhuida IP Agency and Wanhuida Law Firm, with offices covering all major IP hubs in China. Wanhuida supplies a full range of IP services, from procurement of all forms of IP rights to dispute resolution involving patents, trademarks, unfair competition and other IP-related rights, protecting and defending client’s interests and helping advancing China’s legal fronts.

• Competition/antitrust
• Corporate and M&A
• Dispute resolution
• Regulatory
• Intellectual property

Trademark
Ren Haiyan (Ms)
renhaiyan@wanhuida.com

Recent case highlights:

• Advising MICHELIN in a trademark infringement suit against a Chinese infringer exhibiting and promoting toys using the "Tire man device", obtained favourable retrial decision, cessation and damages. The retrial court ascertains that using a figurative trademark as a 3D object constitutes trademark infringement. The case is selected as one of the SPC’s 50 exemplary IPR cases of 2020.
• Advising ABB in a private criminal prosecution against a fake seller before the trial court and court of appeal, which found exporter Teaton and its owner Zhang guilty of selling counterfeits, sentencing Zhang to 3.5-year imprisonment and imposing fines RMB 800,000 to Zhang and RMB 850,000 to Teaton. The case is selected as one of the SPC’s 50 exemplary IPR cases of 2020.
• Representing Wyeth in securing a favorable decision in a civil appeal proceeding against a long-term infringer Guangzhou Wyeth Baby Products Ltd. et al. The Zhejiang High Court upheld the decision rendered by the Hangzhou Intermediate Court, which found trademark infringement and unfair competition, ordered cessation and granted punitive damages of RMB 30 million and reasonable legal expenditure of RMB 550,000.
• Representing New Balance in prevailing in the first and second instance of a trademark civil infringement lawsuit against the manufacturer, distributor and a local dealer of infringing New Bairin sneakers, which is a slavish copycat of New Balance’s iconic slanting “N” logo and peculiar trade dress. The Court of Appeal, Jiangsu High Court upheld the decision rendered by the Suzhou Intermediate Court, which granted permanent injunction, damages of RMB 18.2 million and elimination of adverse effects.
• Representing Stihl in bringing an incidental civil action during criminal proceedings against the counterfeiter before the Court of Yuyao in Zhejiang Province, which adopted all the recommendations made by the Public Prosecutor and pronounced sentences of prison from two to three years, accompanied by probation periods to take account of the attitude of the defendants. Stihl obtained an amount of RMB 500,000 as damages. The case is selected as one of the Exemplary Cases in Intellectual Property Protection of Zhejiang Provincial People’s Procuratorate.
• Representing CHANEL in prevailing in the unfair competition suit against a copycat fragrance imitating the iconic trade dress of its most recognized CHANEL N°5 perfume. The Trial Court and the Court of Appeal granted protection over the unique trade dress of CHANEL N°5 perfume, ordered cessation and damages. The infringer adduced during the appeal an administrative judgment rendered by the Beijing High Court, rejecting CHANEL’s application of a 3D trademark based on the bottle of N°5 perfume to challenge the distinctiveness of the trade dress, which was dismissed by the Court of Appeal. The judgment of 1st instance was selected as one of the 10 Exemplary IPR Cases in 2020 by Xi’an Intermediate Court.

Patent
Dr. S. Sam Li
samli@wanhuida.com

Recent case highlights:

• Representing the patentee in the first parallel administrative and civil proceedings involving chiral drug medical use patents before the China Supreme People's Court, successfully defending the validity of the client's medical use patents and obtaining favorable court decisions, cessation and damages of RMB 800,000 in the patent civil suits.
• Helping defend the validity of Bayer’s compound patent of blockbuster anticoagulant drug rivaroxaban in an invalidity proceeding. The CNIPA affirmed that the teaching of specific drug structure-activity relationship is pivotal in ascertaining technical motivation for structural modification in the prior art. The case was selected as one of CNIPA’s Top Ten Patent Reexamination and Invalidation Cases in 2020.
• Advising P&G in fending off unreasonable patent infringement suit initiated by a Chinese patentee claiming whopping damages RMB 100 million before the Shanghai IP Court by having the invention invalidated.
• Representing the client in successfully revoking an unfavourable administrative decision made by a local AMR authority by leveraging the findings of the distinguishing design features in the CNIPA decision to contradict the Patentee’s arguments in the infringement proceeding as it breaches the estoppel principle. The approach finally led to the non-infringement finding of the court of appeal. This is probably the SPC’s first administrative decision concerning infringement assessment of GUI design patent.

• Consumer goods and services
• Energy
• Industrials and manufacturing
• Insurance
• Materials
• Media and entertainment
• Pharmaceuticals and life sciences
• Technology and telecommunications

Chongqing, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Hong Kong, Ningbo, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Suzhou, Tianjin