Intellectual property dispute resolution is the core practice of Wis & Weals Law Firm. Wis & Weals has an outstanding team of
intellectual property lawyers, patent attorneys and trademark attorneys
with rich experience in intellectual property litigation, arbitration
and dispute resolution.
Domestic dispute resolution in PRC
The
intellectual property litigation team of Wis & Weals is active in
courts at all levels in China, especially in the intellectual property
courts, intermediate courts and high courts in Beijing and all over
China, and in the Supreme Court of China as well.
In
the long-term practice, our IP litigation team has got a profound and
unique understanding of the litigation environment and judicial culture
in China, which makes our services professional and, on this basis,
formulate litigation strategies that best accommodate the overall
interests of our clients. We strive to make litigations in line with the
business interests of our clients.
We are deeply aware
that IP disputes involve not only complex legal issues but also many
business, industry, and social issues that affect the business of our
clients. Our experienced litigation team will put forward creative
litigation strategies according to the characteristics of our clients and effectively resolve clients’ disputes.
International disputes resolution
The
IP litigation team of Wis & Weals has rich experience in overseas
IP litigations, arbitrations, and dispute resolution, and providing support and management service for our clients' overseas litigation and
arbitration in Europe, the United States, Asia and other countries and regions.
Wis & Weals has a cooperation network of IP
lawyers across Europe, the United States, Japan ,and South Korea, able to provide clients with international and domestic IP litigation
services.
In recent years, we have formulated
strategies and conducted business management for many Chinese
enterprises to prevent and avoid overseas IP risks and resolve disputes.
In particular, we have strategically taken both legal and commercial
measures to effectively safeguard our clients' overseas IP interests
based on their specific circumstances, including but not limited to
participating in litigations, filing requests for patent invalidation,
and launching negotiations. Thanks to these measures, the relevant
enterprises have been able to enhance their awareness of overseas IP
risk control and their ability to defuse the risks and become more
confident in dealing with overseas IP disputes.
+- Patents
Patent is one of the external manifestations of core
competence of an enterprise. Patent litigation has become a common means
of market competition.
The patent litigation team of
Wis & Weals assists clients in dealing with patent litigation
related to patent infringement, patent invalidity and patent licensing.
In particular, we are at the leading edge of standard essential patent
disputes resolution in the field of communication.
We
are deeply aware that patent litigation is a long and complex process,
which usually requires a lot of energy and financial resources. The
patent litigation team of Wis & Weals will evaluate the litigation
strategy jointly with the clients in order to balance the clients’
potential interests and the related costs to safeguard the clients'
interests to the largest extent.
Representative cases
+- Standard Essential Patents
Standard essential patent disputes are among the more complex
and leading edge disputes in patent litigations, involving numbers of
issues such as industry practice, standards, licensing negotiations,
licensing declaration, infringement affirmation, licensing fee rate, and
injunction etc.
Our patent litigation team has
experience in handling classical standard essential patent infringement
cases in the field of communication as well as the associated antitrust
disputes, patent licensing fee disputes and patent invalidation
disputes. We have obvious leading advantages in providing clients with
an full solution from licensing policy to disputes resolution.
Representative cases
+- Trademarks
The trademark litigation team of Wis & Weals assists clients in
dealing with trademark litigation related to trademark infringement,
invalidity, revocation, rejection and licensing as well as
administrative complaint such as anti-counterfeiting.
Representative cases
+- Copyrights
The copyright litigation team of Wis & Weals assists clients in
dealing with lawsuits related to copyright infringement and cooperative
development of books, computer software, online games, music and
databases. In particular, are at the leading edge of disputes resolution
over computer software and Internet copyright.
Representative cases
+- Trade Secrets
Trade secrets are not known to the public, which makes it
difficult to protect. According to our statistics, the plaintiff's
winning rate in trade secret infringement lawsuits is obviously lower
than those in other IP cases. Therefore, to effectively protect trade
secrets, one needs not only richer litigation experience, but also ready
targeted measures to protect trade secrets before disputes occur in
order to fully meet any possible litigation needs.
The
IP litigation team of Wis & Weals assists clients in dealing with
civil lawsuits, criminal complaints and administrative matters
concerning infringement of trade secrets, as well as disputes over
employee confidentiality and non-competition.
Representative cases
+- Anti-unfair Competition & Anti-monopoly
With the intensification of market competition, disputes over
anti-unfair competition and anti-monopoly to maintain the normal market
competition order are gradually growing.
We assist
clients in handling with anti-unfair competition and anti-monopoly
lawsuits, responding and initiating anti-monopoly investigations. In
particular, we are at the leading edge of monopoly disputes resolution
over the abuse of market dominance and intellectual property.
Representative cases
+- Contracts
We assist clients in dealing with various types of IP contract
disputes in connection with cooperative development, commissioned
development, licensing, etc.
Meanwhile, we provide
clients with services such as drafting and reviewing technology
licensing, transfer and cooperation contracts, carrying out due
diligence on the authenticity and validity of technologies and
intellectual property, formulating licensing policies, and negotiating
technology transactions, especially examining and formulating
intellectual property clauses in contracts.
Representative cases
+- Software & Internet
Wis & Weals is one of the earliest teams to deal with
software and Internet legal affairs in China. As early as in 1999, our
team members had began to handle Internet legal affairs for a number of
clients.
Over the past two decades of practice, we have
dealt with a large number of software and Internet legal affairs for
our clients, such as computer software infringement, Internet copyright
infringement, Internet unfair competition, domain name disputes and so
on. In particular, we are at the leading edge in dealing with patent
disputes involving computer software.
Representative cases
+- Intellectual Property Crime
Patent is one of the external manifestations of core
competence of an enterprise. Patent litigation has become a common means
of market competition.
The patent litigation team of Wis
& Weals assists clients in dealing with patent litigation related to
patent infringement, patent invalidity and patent licensing. In
particular, we are at the leading edge of standard essential patent
disputes resolution in the field of communication.
We are
deeply aware that patent litigation is a long and complex process, which
usually requires a lot of energy and financial resources. The patent
litigation team of Wis & Weals will evaluate the litigation strategy
jointly with the clients in order to balance the clients’ potential
interests and the related costs to safeguard the clients' interests to
the largest extent.
Representative cases
Our trademark lawyers and attorneys can provide
forward-looking comprehensive application solutions for clients on the
basis of the their current and future trademark strategies through complete retrieval.
Our services include:
* Trademark retrieval;
* Formulation of trademark prosecution strategy;
* Trademark prosecution;
* Registration of trademark license;
* Trademark transfer;
* International application for trademarks, etc.
Patent prosecution is a legal procedure for obtaining patent
rights. Therefore, whether a patent can obtain appropriate protection
scope and strong stability depends mainly on the quality of patent
prosecution. Clients who pay more attention to the follow-up procedures
of invalidation, infringement, licensing and transfer of their patents
often attach great importance to the quality of their patent rights,
rather than merely obtaining a patent authorization certificate.
Patent
prosecution is one of the most competitive services of Wis & Weals.
Through cooperation among patent lawyers, patent attorneys, and patent
engineers, we can make the members of different roles fully involved, whether in providing patent prosecution and invalidation services or in
providing patent infringement, retrieval and analysis, licensing, and
transfer services for clients, so as to maximize the advantages of
different members of the team. Compared to a single-member structure, a
composite team can improve the quality of our work and enable our
clients to enjoy value-added services.
In particular,
when applying for a patent, we can make full use of our experience in
dealing with patent invalidation and infringement cases to judge
the situations that the patent may encounter in the future better when it be
requested for invalidation or used for patent infringement complaints,
so as to improve the quality of patent prosecution. Similarly, in
dealing with patent invalidation and infringement disputes, our
experience in patent prosecution also helps to understand patent
prosecution documents in disputes better.
Our services include:
* Patentability search;
* Chinese patent prosecution (invention, utility model, or design);
* Priority examination of patent applications in China;
* Patent prosecution in other countries or regions;
* PCT international application and entry into the Chinese national stage;
* Patent reexamination;
* Whole-process management of patents.
We provide copyright registration services for our clients, including
copyright registration for all kinds of literary works, art works,
music works, computer software, etc.
Meanwhile, we construct the management system of copyright for our clients.
The essential meaning of IP lies in serving innovation and market competition of enterprises.
A practical IP strategy can help an enterprise in determining the
position, direction, and development modes of its product R&D and IP
in its overall business activities in a certain period of time, so that
the enterprise’s leaders can clearly define their goals and the path to
achieve the goals.
+- IP Compliance Management
Enterprise’s exercise and utilization of IP assets and rights need to comply with laws, policies and regulations.
We
provide our clients with IP compliance management schemes to
systematically improve their compliance management capabilities
according to their industry characteristics and the government
regulatory system.
+- Enterprise IP Risk Prevention & Control
There are risks of infringing the IPRs of others in the
R&D, manufacturing, sales and other business activities of an
enterprise, such as the risk of infringing the patents, trade secrets,
copyright and trademarks of others in the course of R&D,
manufacturing and sales.
Meanwhile, others may also impose the risk of infringing the IPRs of the enterprise.
We
provide our clients with IP risk prevention and control schemes to
systematically improve their ability to prevent and control IP risks in
the light of their specific IP risks, industry characteristics, and competition situations.
Representative cases
+- Trade Secret Management System
Trade secret management has attracted more and more attention
from enterprises as one of the important ways of managing operation
results and technological achievements. The non-disclosure and permanent
protection of trade secrets can provide special protection for
technological achievements of enterprises that is different from that of
patents.
In view of the types and characteristics of
trade secrets that need to be protected, through investigation and
improvement of contract texts, rules and regulations as well as
management processes, and based on the actual condition of enterprises, we
work out customized trade secret management systems for enterprises so
that they can make more detailed adjustments based on their current
management status quo and the current condition of major competitors in
the industry.
Through the effective operation of the
system, enterprises can not only protect their trade secrets in a
complete, full and effective manner, but also prevent enterprises from
infringing the trade secrets of others.
+- IP Management System
The effective management of IP is indispensable for an
enterprise to achieve its goals through IP. Although different
enterprises have different demands for IP management due to different
business scales and development stages, it is the only way for
innovative enterprises to succeed by gradually strengthening IP
management through their own IP management systems.
Each
enterprise should establish its own IPR protection systems step by step
according to its own characteristics, rather than mechanically applying the model of others. Operability and full respect for the history and
reality of clients are the prerequisites for the smooth and effective
operation of the corporate IP management system.
When
establishing a corporate IP management system, we need to figure out the
IP information on aspects including patent, trademark, know-how,
copyright, trade secret, domain name and trade name, as well as the IP
information circulation among HR, R&D, manufacturing, market and
other business activities so as to realize the seamless connection with the
IP management system based on the existing corporate management
framework and avoid excessive impact on its current management system.
Our
team has accumulated rich experience in building IP management systems
for big enterprises and can provide comprehensive solutions for
corporate IP management based on the strength of our rich experience in
IP dispute resolution and IP application.
Representative cases
+- IP Strategy
The value of IP to an enterprise depends, to a great extent,
on the strategic position of IP in the business activities of the
enterprise and the way it manages IP. Effective strategy and management
will be crucial for enterprises to improve the quantity and quality of
their IP in the long run.
IP strategy can help an
enterprise to determine the position, direction, and development modes of
its product R&D and IP in its overall business activities in a
certain period of time, so that the enterprise’s leaders can clearly
define their goals and the path to achieve the goals.
Our
lawyers participated in the formulation of the National IP Strategy of
China in 2005, and since then, we have paid more attention to the
construction of enterprise IP strategy and management system. We have
taken the lead in accumulating a large number of cases in this field,
involving not only large state-owned enterprises, but also large and
medium-sized private enterprises and joint ventures, including the
overall formulation and construction of enterprise IP strategy and
management system, as well as the construction of IP management system
for specific business and products.
Our team members'
working experience in enterprises, as well as long-term experience as
legal advisers for enterprises, make us more familiar with the internal
operation and management of different enterprises, which also helps us
to work out practical and effective solutions for enterprises.
In
the formulation and implementation of an enterprise’ IP strategy, we
work with the client to preliminarily determine the direction,
objectives and strategies of its business strategy as well as the
client's basic ideas about IP through due diligence, assist the clients
in determining the IP strategic objectives in details, investigate,
analyze and evaluate the status quo of the client's IP and major
competitors in major technology fields, as well as the ways of promoting
and managing the client’s IP, assist the client in developing medium
and long term IP strategic plans and corresponding implementation plans,
and provide follow-up services such as consulting and training service
for the implementation of the client’s IP strategy.
+- Trademark Management & Utilization Strategy
We formulate trademark management and utilization strategies for our clients, particularly including:
* System construction on trademark management and utilization;
* Strategic plan for comprehensive brand protection;
* Trademark licensing and franchising;
* Global trademark monitoring;
* Drafting and negotiating coexistence agreements, etc.
Representative cases
+- Design Around
For products with IPR infringement risks, how to avoid the
corresponding risks through designing around is a complex issue
involving technology and law.
With years of close
collaboration among excellent IP lawyers and patent attorneys, Wis &
Weals is able to formulate product IP design around plans for our
clients in accordance with their market demand.
+- Patent Mining & Layout
In order to fully protect the IPRs in new products and R&D
schemes, so as to avoid IPR impairment, we usually suggest clients carry out complete patent mining and layout, at least for core technologies.
Our team of IP lawyers and patent attorneys fully communicate with clients' technical teams on technical solutions, sort out and decompose
the technologies and work out patent layout schemes that are in line
with the clients' competitive purposes on the basis of full retrieval,
aiming to improve the quality of patent rights to the largest extent and
to avoid the appearance of authorized but ineffective patents as far as
possible.
Representative cases
+- IP Training
Wis & Weals has been deeply involved in the business and
internal management of various kinds of clients. We are deeply aware
that IP training is of great significance in improving clients’
awareness of IP and the improvement of management and practical skills.
We
have accumulated a wealth of experience in the course of providing
training services for our clients over the years and are well aware of
the personalized requirements of our clients for the purpose and effect
of training. Therefore, we have prepared the following IP practical
courses for our clients based on a large number of cases we have handled
over the years and assigned senior partners and scholars in the
corresponding fields to give lectures.
* Comprehensive course on IP management;
* IP management in HR activities;
* IP Management in R&D activities;
* Risk pre-warning management of IPRs in new products;
* Patent mining and layout;
* IP issues in the process of initial public offering (IPO);
* Management of trade secrets;
* IP litigation and protection;
* Patent management;
* Patent application practice and skills.
Representative cases
+- IP Advisory Service
Our services include:
* IP training;
* Legal consultation on IP;
* Drafting and negotiation of IP contracts;
* Argumentation and disposal of potential IP disputes;
* Dealing with IP issues in HR activities;
* IP affairs in M&A investment activities;
* IP due diligence;
* IP risk analysis and demonstration;
* Construction of IP management system, etc.
Representative cases
Technology transaction is an important approach that enables technological achievements to benefit the entire society.
Meanwhile,
as we know, the transaction of IP often leads to a better realization
of the economic value of IP. Technology transaction is closely related
to the field of investment. Thanks to our strengths in the field of IP,
we have a richer experience in technology transactions and the
technology-related investment field.
We assist Chinese
enterprises in obtaining technology from overseas and continually
developing overseas markets. We protect foreign enterprises from IP
infringement in China, so that they can make a profit and gain a competitive
advantage from their IP in China. In particular, in cross-border
technology transfer activities, we are able to provide complete and
effective protection schemes for the right and interests of technology
owners, making the technology transfer methods manageable and incomes
verifiable.
Our team of IP lawyers, patent attorneys,
patent engineers, and trademark attorneys can not only better understand
clients’ technical field, but also better evaluate the current and
potential value and legal status of technology for clients in technology
transaction and investment affairs so as to help clients to discover
the value of technology more accurately and protect their interests in
technology transaction and investment activities.
Our services include:
* Design and implementation of technology transaction framework;
* Drafting and review of legal documents for technology transaction;
* Due diligence on technology and IPRs;
* Technology transaction negotiations;
* Monitoring of technology transaction implementation, etc.
Commercial dispute resolution has always been the key business of Wis & Weals.
Our services include:
* Commercial litigation: including participation in domestic and foreign civil, commercial, and maritime litigations;
*
Commercial arbitration: including participation in various domestic
arbitrations, international arbitrations (including expert witnesses in
Chinese law), recognition and enforcement of overseas awards in China;
*
In-house investigation: including investigations into suspected illegal
behavior of employees, such as criminal offences, IP infringements,
violations of internal rules, or any other illegal possession of the
company's properties and interests;
* Bankruptcy: including the
initiation or participation of bankruptcy proceedings, participation in
the formulation, implementation and enforcement of bankruptcy and
reorganization plans, participation in bankruptcy-related litigations, and acceptance of the court's appointment as bankruptcy administrator;
*
Permanent legal advisor: including contract drafting and review,
consultations, regular legal training, and legal advisory services for
special affairs, such as investment, restructuring, negotiation of
transactions, analysis and preliminary treatment of potential disputes.
