The Patent 1000 focuses exclusively on patent practice and has firmly established itself as the definitive 'go-to' resource for those seeking world-class legal patent expertise.
Silver - Individuals: prosecution
Plaudits come thick and fast for Advance China IP Law Office: one client calls it “undoubtedly one of the top patent litigation firms in China”, while another reports: “ACIP shows a profound understanding of the commercial and strategic requirements of European businesses in China”. Headquartered in Guangzhou, the outfit is currently home to over 1,000 IP professionals, including a total of 443 patent attorneys across its branches in mainland China, plus a representative office in Silicon Valley. The multilingual international patent department is headed by Shanghai-based Chong He, whose outstanding technical acumen and litigious nous impress many: “Mr He is simply one of the most impressive and highly experienced attorneys in the region.” “His commitment to the work is of the highest standards. He is among the best in the field.” Over in its Guangzhou home base, Minhui Zeng and Wenwen Wang are the names to note. Zeng is recognised as one of the leading IP lawyers in Guangdong province, and his résumé includes claiming one of China’s biggest patent damages awards for Gree several years ago. He is joined by biology PhD Wang, who has the life sciences on lock.
Chong He is a senior partner managing the international patent department of Advance China IP Law Office (ACIP), which he joined in 2005. Before starting his IP career, Mr He worked as an engineer for a foreign high-tech company, thus developing a good understanding of the working processes of international companies. With rich experience in patent prosecution and counselling relating to international patent drafting, infringement analysis, freedom-to-operate investigations, invalidations and patent strategy, Mr He has helped clients to successfully obtain patent rights and win patent re-examinations and invalidations, especially in the field of engineering and electronics.
Mr He has extensive experience in patent prosecution in China, the United States, Europe, Japan, Korea and other countries, which enables him to help his clients manage their global patent portfolio more effectively.
In addition to prosecution, Mr He’s practice also extends to patent enforcement for international clients. He has participated in many enforcement cases together with ACIP’s enforcement department and helped international clients successfully combat the infringement and counterfeiting of patents and trademarks.
Mr He has been recommended in the individual rankings for patent prosecution in the IAM Patent 1000 since 2019, and was elected as a council member of the All-China Patent Attorneys Association in 2020.
Advance China IP Law Office (ACIP), founded in 1999, is one of the largest full-service IP law firms in China with over 1,000 IP professionals. The ACIP patent team boasts 443 patent attorneys and patent engineers, 56 litigators and hundreds of supporting staff, including former patent examiners and senior in-house IP professionals. We have four main offices located in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, one US representative office in Silicon Valley and six other branch offices in major cities of China.
Our mission is to help clients from all over the globe, in a vast range of industrial sectors, to obtain and manage valuable patent portfolios, protecting their technologies. For that purpose, we provide comprehensive IP services covering pre-filing strategy, filing and prosecution of patent and trademark applications, post-grant proceedings, and enforcement and litigation, aiming to maximise the client’s benefits with cost and time efficiencies.
Clients trust us in both contentious and non-contentious IP matters for our accurate understanding of technology, versatile legal skills, fluent language abilities, commercial goal-oriented strategy planning, and flexibility and creativity in customising tailor-made services. Our working languages include Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean and German.
Our patent attorneys with advanced science degrees can skilfully handle patent matters in most technical fields, including electrical and electronics, telecommunication, software, semiconductor, displays, cell phones, batteries, mechanics, automobiles, home appliances, genetic engineering, pharma, materials, chemical engineering and medical devices.
We also help clients enforce their patents by formulating contentious strategies, resolving infringements disputes and combatting counterfeits for rights owners via administrative enforcement, litigation and invalidation proceedings. One challenge for foreign clients to sue infringers in China is the difference in court system and the burden of evidence gathering. Thanks to the collaboration between all our offices, and with the aid of our own investigation team, our attorneys can ensure effective evidence collection despite the absence of discovery in person, as well as efficient court archive retrieval, efficient administrative investigation and quick actions across China.
We also work with IP firms around the globe and actively contributes to international IP associations including the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI), INTA, the International Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys (FICPI), the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO), the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) and MARQUES.
ACIP specialises in the following, in particular:
- patent prosecution, such as:
- patent drafting and prosecution in China;
- patent registration in Hong Kong and Macau;
- patent re-examination and appeal;
- patent invalidation; patent search and analysis; and
- patent transactions and licensing; and
- patent litigation and enforcement, such as:
- investigation, notarisation and evidence collection;
- administrative enforcement;
- civil and criminal litigation against infringement and unfair competition;
- IP-related administrative litigation; and
- customs IP rights protection.
Rankings
- IAM Patent 1000, 2019 to 2022
- Band 3 Intellectual Property: Non-litigation (PRC Firms)-China 2023
- Tier 1 for Patent Prosecution and Contentious in China Southern Region, MIP, 2014 to 2017
- IP Stars Ranked Firm, MIP, 2020 to 2022
- Asia IP Ranked Firm, 2020 to 2022
- Top 10 Best Chinese IP Firms for Patent Prosecution, IPR Daily, 2017
- Outstanding IP Service Team of China, China Intellectual Property Magazine, 2016
- Four-Star Patent Agency, China Intellectual Property News, 2016
Affiliations
- Vice president of the All-China Patent Attorney Association
- Members of the China Intellectual Property Society
- Member of the AIPPI
- Member of the FICPI
- Member of the IPO
- Member of the AIPLA