On 4th March 2026, Hong Kong-based legal magazine China Business Law Journal (CBLJ) releases the winners of its "Deals of the Year Award 2025".
This year, CBLJ selected a total of 275 standout deals and cases from thousands of submissions. Key evaluation criteria include deal size, industry impact, structural innovation, judicial precedent setting, and social contribution. To qualify, transactions or cases must have been completed or achieved significant milestones between 1 November 2024 and 31 October 2025.
Two high-caliber deals of Wanhuida Intellectual Property are selected by the magazine to be included in the section of “INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY”. The firm has been a winner of the magazine's "Deals of the Year" awards since 2012.
In the wining deal “Gan & Lee v Tonghua Dongbao TM dispute”, the firm advised Gan & Lee, a leading Chinese pharmaceutical company in prevailing in both instances of court proceeding, where the Suzhou Intermediate Court and the Jiangsu High Court unanimously ruled against Tonghua Dongbao, a rival Chinese insulin maker and an ex- shareholder of the client that preemptively registered and used similar trademarks, adopting similar trade names and trade dress. The court found trademark infringement and unfair competition could be established, recognized the well-known trademark status of the client’s prior marks, ordered cessation, and awarded damages of RMB 60.8162388 million (inclusive of reasonable costs). The case was included in the SPC’s 2024 Annual Report on the Application of Law in IP Cases by Courts Nationwide.
In the wining deal “New Balance v New BailunLP TM dispute”, the firm represented New Balance in obtaining a landmark ruling, in which both the trial court and the court of appeal awarded permanent injunction and a record damages of RMB 58.7 million (inclusive of reasonable costs and by applying punitive damages) in a trademark infringement and unfair competition suit against the infringers using a slavish copycat of the client’s iconic slanting “N” logo and its Chinese trade name “新百伦”, which has acquired certain influence in China.
China Business Law Journal's independent editorial team made its own choices on the deals they felt were the shining stars for the year. The winning deals and cases are presented in 12 sections: Equity capital markets; Debt capital markets; ABS/Reits; Mergers and acquisitions; Private equity and venture capital; Projects; General corporate matters; Liquidation, bankruptcy and restructuring; Intellectual property; International trade investigations; Domestic dispute resolution and Cross-border dispute resolution.
For more information of the Wanhuida winning deals, please refer to: