In the patent area, we have some 120 professionals with experience in patent litigation, prosecution and counselling. Many have over ten years of experiences. Some have experience working for Chinese courts, China's patent office and the Patent Re-examination and Invalidation Department, and some also worked for industries and research institutions before joining private practice. The diverse backgrounds add our strength in understanding our clients and the Chinese system and in delivering services to our clients effectively.
Our patent attorneys cover substantially all technical fields, including chemistry, biochemistry, pharmaceutics, material science, medical device, metallurgy, physics, electronics, software, telecommunication and mechanical engineering. Most of them have advanced technical education and obtained their doctorate and master's degrees in the best universities in China.
Some of our patent cases are selected by courts or agencies as exemplary cases. They include cases selected as "Guiding Cases of the Supreme People's Court on IP Trial", "Annual Report of the Supreme People's Court on Intellectual Property Cases", "Top 10/50 IP Cases of the Chinese Courts" (released annually by the Supreme People Court), "10 Exemplary Cases of the Patent Reexamination Board" ("PRB") or "CNIPA 10 Exemplary Patent Administrative Enforcement Cases". These cases have contributed to patent law development in subjects such as claim construction, claim amendment, inventiveness determination and sufficient disclosure.
SPC Exemplary Anti-monopoly and Unfair Competition Cases: Successfully defending the legitimacy pertaining to the patentee's implementation of a valid chemical compound invention in a high-stake anti-monopoly appeal proceeding. The China Supreme People's Court overturned the unfavourable first instance court decision, which ordered the client to pay hefty damages of RMB 90 million.
SPC Top 50 Cases: Representing the patentee in 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. This is the first parallel administrative and civil proceedings involving chiral drug medical use patents before the SPC.
SPC Top 50 Cases: Representing Bayer in a patent administrative enforcement action against two Chinese infringers offering for sale the client's patented drug rivaroxaban, obtaining favorable decisions from the Nanjing IP Office. The infringers appealed all the way to the SPC but to no avail. The SPC used this case to clarify whether the Bolar exemption applies to the act of offering for sale.
CNIPA 10 Exemplary Patent Administrative Enforcement Cases: Representing Bayer in enforcing its pharmaceutical patent over the anti-tumor compound sorafenib by initiating an administrative action against a local infringer offering to sell the patented products. The Shanghai IPO granted Bayer's petition and ordered cessation of the infringement.
CNIPA 10 Exemplary Patent Administrative Enforcement Cases: Representing Bayer, the patentee of an invention patent titled "ω-Carboxyaryl Substituted Diphenylureas as Raf Kinase Inhibitors" in a patent administrative enforcement action against an infringer offering for sale of the patented products, obtaining a favorable decision.
CBLJ Deals of the Year: 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 SPC's first administrative decision concerning infringement assessment of GUI design patent.
SPC Top 50 Cases: Representing SEB, the world's leading small household appliance supplier, in defeating a patent infringer in two instances of court proceedings, obtaining a court injunction and damages of RMB 300,000. The case was selected by the SPC for its clarification on how to define the protection scope of functional claims.
SPC Top 50 Cases: Representing MAPED in patent infringement lawsuit against the manufacturer and distributor of infringing scissors through first and second instance as well as re-adjudication, obtaining the SPC's confirmation that "extra design" element has no material impact on the determination of patent infringement.
Fending off Unreasonable Patent Assertion: Advising P&G in fending off the unreasonable patent infringement suit initiated by a Chinese patentee, which claimed whopping damages as high as RMB 100 million before the Shanghai IP Court by having the patentee's invention invalidated.
Fending off Large Damages Claim: Obtaining a favorable court judgment in defending a client in an infringement suit in which the plaintiff asserted a chemical process patent and claimed damages in the amount of RMB 12.9772 million.
Representing Stokke AS, a Norwegian children's furniture and accessories maker and the patentee of an invention patent for a foldable stroller, in obtaining a court injunction, a favorable patent infringement decision and damages of RMB 2.25 million against the manufacturer and dealers of the infringing products.
SPC IP Report Cases: Representing Guangzhou New GEP in a retrial of patent infringement suit, in which the SPC supported the argument that in construction of a claim, if the parties have different understanding of the wordings, one may refer to the specification and the drawings to interpret the claim.
The firm provides very quick responses that are always highly professional and well-founded, even when it comes to complex and strategic IP issues.
As one of China's leading prosecution shops, the firm's competitive contentious offering attracts a group of staunch followers.
The firm has a team that is extremely experienced and able to seriously study cases and logically draft their observations. They are very good at providing the most appropriate strategies and detailed approaches with full understanding of the client's situation and deep involvement in the cases. They are efficient to communicate with on technical issues and works very well with in-house patent counsels.
The service provided by Wanhuida is characterized by being extremely client oriented, with an almost around the clock availability. Their communication style is very good and adapted to Western sensitivities. Their service is very thorough and has proven very supportive in the distance. They have become our close and reliable allies in China to the point of working almost like in-house counsels for us.
Their professional service and willingness to think outside of the box win them a lot of quality clients. They are not only helping their clientele, but also the whole IP industry with the pioneering tries they have made.
It is the firm's strong suit in advising complex and sophisticated matters, such as patent matters, with new topics like artificial intelligence, and for intellectual property issues in corporate transactions.
Its team is very knowledgeable about the industry, highly professional and provides quick feedback and excellent patent application and maintenance services.
The team had excellent professional skills, communication skills and organisation and coordination skills. The patent application process was so smooth that it was approved by the Patent Office in a single examination.
They are our key law firm in China. The trust we have with each other is really special. I recommend them at every opportunity.
