Ropes & Gray announced today that leading intellectual property lawyer Geoffrey Lin has joined the firm in its newly opened Shanghai office, providing enhanced service to clients on their transactions and disputes in China and throughout Asia.
With more than six years of experience advising clients in China, Mr. Lin has handled non-contentious and contentious IP matters in Asia and around the world. He focuses on structuring licensing agreements and technology transfers as well as protecting and enforcing clients’ intellectual property rights. Before joining Ropes & Gray he was a partner at Hogan Lovells in that firm’s Shanghai office.
Ropes & Gray launched its Shanghai office in July, with a sharp focus on private equity and investment funds and M&A transactions, particularly in the life sciences industry. Mr. Lin’s experience and knowledge brings a critical element to executing transactions in China—the valuation of intellectual property assets and the structuring of transfers to protect those assets. His background complements the experience of partner Arthur Mok, who advises companies on private equity and life sciences transactions, and partner Geoffrey Chan, who handles investment fund formation.
A team of lawyers will be joining Ropes & Gray in Shanghai with Mr. Lin.
“Intellectual property is typically the core component of deals in the life sciences industry in China,” said Mr. Mok. “Geoffrey Lin is one of a handful of IP lawyers in China with experience in structuring the transfer of those IP assets, and his knowledge adds an important aspect to the counsel Ropes & Gray provides clients on their transactions.”
Mr. Lin has advised clients in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, health care, technology, electronics and telecommunications sectors on forming and implementing their IP strategies—including protection of patents, brands, and designs—in China. He led the team that handled the settlement of the largest IP case in Chinese history and has represented clients such as Genentech, Inc.; Becton, Dickinson and Company; and Apple, Inc.
“Ropes & Gray has articulated a smart, focused, forward-looking strategy for advising clients on their life sciences and technology deals in China,” said Mr. Lin. “I am excited to integrate my concentration on IP issues with the firm’s strong transactional capabilities in Shanghai and Hong Kong.”
Mr. Lin, who has a B.S. in Neural Science from New York University and a J.D. from Cornell Law School, is an admitted member of the New York State Bar, the California State Bar and the U.S. Patent Bar and is fluent in English as well as Mandarin Chinese.
Ropes & Gray, a global law firm with more than 1,000 lawyers and professionals, provides clients with execution of their transactions from offices in the world’s major centers of business, finance, technology and government—Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, London, New York, Washington, D.C., Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Silicon Valley. The firm is consistently ranked among the world’s leaders in private equity, M&A, finance, investment management, hedge funds, life sciences, health care, intellectual property, litigation, securities litigation and government enforcement.
The Shanghai office is the firm’s third in Asia and its 10th worldwide. Since opening offices in Hong Kong in 2008 and Tokyo in 2007, Ropes & Gray has established itself as a leading firm in Asia, handling some of the region’s largest and most complex transactions.
