Bird & Bird

Firm overview:

Bird & Bird’s China and Hong Kong Intellectual Property Group has been active in intellectual property matters for almost three decades and provides an IP offering across the Asia Pacific region. The China Group is spread across the Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen offices and comprises 11 partners and over 60 professionals managing complex projects across multiple jurisdictions. The group’s clients include world’s leading brand names, as well as small and medium businesses.

With a focus on both contentious and non-contentious intellectual property law, the group advises in all areas of IP, including trade marks, patents, trade secrets, copyright and designs, on commercial IP advice as well as advice on IP litigation.

Team overview:

The firm’s industry focus is in technology and innovation driven sectors such as the life sciences & healthcare, retail & consumer and media, entertainment & sports (including e-gaming) sectors. Many of the firm’s lawyers are dual qualified with additional degrees in subjects such as aeronautical engineering, biochemistry, biology, computing science, mechanical engineering, medicine and pharmacy.

The IP team is jointly led by Christine Yu and Ted Chwu. Christine Yu is based in Shanghai. She is experienced in assisting companies to protect their valuable innovations in the form of copyright, data rights, goodwill, trade mark, design, as well as utility models and invention patents.

Ted Chwu is based in Hong Kong and is the managing partner of the Greater China offices. His practice covers the management of trade mark portfolios, patent applications, IP litigation, prosecution and infringement, and also on IP-related competition issues. He is experienced on disputes involving embedded software copyright, materials technology, aerospace, semiconductors, chemical and refrigerant technology, LEDs and consumer electronics.

Key matters:

• Bird & Bird successfully acted as legal counsel for  VMI Holland B.V. in three patent ownership disputes in a landmark decision made by the Supreme People’s Court.  The defendant was found to have misappropriated the client’s technical secrets and further filed three patents based on the misappropriated technical secrets. These judgements ended the long battles of the legal disputes with clear and decisive victories for VMI.

Clients:

VMI Holland B.V., Razer (Asia-Pacific) Pte. Ltd., Helen of Troy, Fressnapf Group, Edward Lifesciences, King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), Xeniro, Anycubic, Hong Kong Centre for Cerebro-cardiovascular Health Engineering Limited (“HKCOCHE”)