The Clyde & Co Beijing office has welcomed intellectual property lawyer Yan Gong as a Local Partner and Head of the China Trademark practice in the firm’s Chinese Joint Law Venture (JLV) Clyde & Co Westlink.
Gong joins from Beijing IP specialist firm China PAT Intellectual Property Office, where she was a partner. Gong specialises in trademark prosecution work and also advises on related investigations and litigation. Previously, she practiced at Bird & Bird in Beijing and at Australian firm Allens.
Gong is joined in the Beijing office by Trademark Attorneys Jin Yan, Huanan Zhu and Weiwei Zhang, as well as paralegals Yaqiong Wang and Rui Chen. Clyde & Co Westlink JLV has also appointed Yihang Liu as a Patent Attorney based in Chongqing.
Partner and head of the China IP practice, Elliot Papageorgiou, says of the appointment: “The Chinese Government has been making significant investments in terms of Intellectual Property protection in recent years. The arrival of Yan and her team is further evidence of the growing demand for, and interest in trademark protection and enforcement in China. As the Central Government continues to move towards making IP protection and enforcement a centrepiece of industrial policy, it is likely we will continue to see increased trade mark, but also patent filing in China in the coming years. We are well placed to deal with that increased demand with someone of Yan’s experience and prowess on board.”
Elliot and his team, which includes Beijing-based Clyde & Co Westlink Local Partner Leo Tang and Shanghia-based Senior Associate Molly Zhuang, joined in July 2017. The expansion of this experienced and well-regarded IP team into China represents a major step in the strategic expansion of Clyde & Co’s IP offering in key locations internationally.
Sitting beside the firm’s existing award-winning IP practice in multiple locations across the Middle East, the team in China provides Clyde & Co with the ability to support clients’ IP interests in two of the most important emerging markets globally. The firm also has a strong capability for contentious and commercial IP work in the UK, led by the highly experienced David Wilkinson who joined the firm in 2015. Since then, the firm has grown the team of IP specialists in the UK to nine, including the highly respected patent litigator, Ralph Cox.
Source: www.clydeco.com
