China International Trademarks Rankings 2026

Overview:

With fewer international law firms now operating trademark practices in China, those that remain are succeeding against the backdrop of an evolving legal framework, intensified competition from PRC firms, geopolitical tension and shifting requirements from globally expanding Chinese companies.

The table above provides a guide to the leading international law firms for non-contentious trademark services across Mainland China and Hong Kong, encompassing prosecution, portfolio management, licensing and transactions.

Law firms and professionals were ranked on the quality and significance of their work; client feedback; and market reputation, as well as independent research by the WIPR Rankings team.

Those thriving in the region have adapted to China’s evolving trademark regime, which is encouraging corporate brand owners to move away from indiscriminate defensive filing toward more targeted, commercially justified portfolios.

Opportunities abound for advising Chinese clients on protecting their increasingly global brands, with the market reporting a notable uplift in this work in recent years. However, international firms face competition from increasingly sophisticated PRC practices and must demonstrate the value they bring to mandates that span multiple jurisdictions.

Outstanding

This year’s top-tier firms distinguish themselves with their knowledge and depth in China’s trademark law and practices, combined with a global network for providing brand protection across multiple key jurisdictions.

China remains a significant market for Bird & Bird, which opened its most recent office in Shenzhen in 2023 from which it serves the city’s global technology clients with their outbound trademark needs. Also favoured by international clients for inbound work, the firm’s non-contentious work includes handling a 1,000 mark portfolio for US video game developer Riot Games. Bird & Bird’s IP Agency in Beijing allows it to conduct trademark matters directly before Mainland Chinese government departments, including registration and enforcement.

Rouse also has a firm foothold in China, with a huge volume of trademarks under its management and a client base that includes some of the world’s biggest brands. In Beijing, “they are huge,” a peer acknowledges; the firm uses its significant resources to add value in terms of  “responsiveness, client care, and proactive enforcement strategies”, according to a client. Rouse’s partnership with Lusheng Law Firm for contentious matters provides end-to-end brand protection support to a mix of highly recognisable foreign and domestic clients.

A US client says that Hogan Lovells Cadwalader—operating as Hogan Lovells Cadwalader Fidelity in China—“really helps guide me and helps me understand the local territories better than I’ve ever understood them before.” Respected in the market, the firm draws on its four decades of presence across the region to advise on prosecution, brand clearance and portfolio strategy, among other areas.

Three trademark practitioners from this year’s top-tier firms receive Outstanding recognition as individuals.

Hogan Lovells Cadwalader’s Helen Xia, head of the IP Group in Asia, “plays a great leading role in her China IP team”, says one client. Leading the trademarks and brands team at Rouse is Hatty Cui, who has a stellar client base that includes top multinationals doing business in China as well as fast-growing Chinese enterprises looking to expand globally.

Hong Kong-based Hank Leung, head of Bird & Bird’s IP team, leads on multi-jurisdictional brand protection programmes and global filing strategies, and represents some of the firm’s biggest clients.

Honoured in this year’s Hall of Fame—reserved for practitioners with distinguished careers that now play key advisory roles on client matters—Loke-Khoon Tan now heads up the IP & Technology Practice at Dentons having departed Baker McKenzie after over 35 years. An eminent figure in the IP profession, Tan has represented major brands and multinational corporations across an array of industries.

Highly Recommended

A notable shift in the rankings table from 2025 is that of Baker McKenzie, down from Outstanding to Highly Recommended this year. The firm lost a powerhouse trio of Loke-Khoon Tan, Dominic Edmondson, and Maria Joannides Smith to Dentons in May this year; other notable departures include James Lau joining East IP in 2025. However, there is sentiment that the practice remains strong and that the “sheer size” of the IP team mitigates the effects of such exits.

Kilpatrick is selected by a client for its “expertise in the country, price, responsiveness”. The firm’s non-contentious work highlights include leading the trademark prosecution and enforcement programme for Costco, the third-largest retailer in the world, in Greater China.

Squire Patton Boggs has also worked with some household-name brands—such as Clarks and Diesel—and is known for handling anti-counterfeiting matters as part of its brand protection programmes. Paolo Beconcini retains his position as a Highly Recommended individual this year for his leadership of the firm’s China IP team, to which he brings a cross-cultural understanding and focus on evidence-gathering.

“Scott Palmer (Loeb & Loeb) is a very experienced attorney who has been acknowledged as one of the best.” Market feedback

This year’s Highly Recommended professionals also include Scott Palmer, who moved from Perkins Coie to Loeb & Loeb in 2024, and is described by a peer as “a very experienced attorney who has been acknowledged as one of the best”; and Christopher Woods, who provides day-to-day strategic guidance for the China brands practice at Kilpatrick. A founding partner of both the Beijing and New York offices, Woods also handles “huge portfolios” in the US, according to a peer.

Recommended

Highlights in the Recommended tier for 2026 include the “great team of experts with a professional approach to trademark value for the industry” at AWA Asia, which operates an East-meets-West approach with a bilingual and bicultural team of IP professionals.

Simmons & Simmons has strengthened its trademark offering in China, adding former Deacons partner Patsy Lau in April this year, and acquiring her experience in handling both inbound and outbound trademark portfolio work. The firm, which combines China capability through its Beijing IP Agency alongside the reach of an international brands platform, is favoured by prominent global brands and has acted for Johnson & Johnson, Lacoste, Major League Baseball and GSK, among others.

Recommended individuals this year include Jonathan Chu, who left CMS in September 2026 and now heads up the IP team for Asia Pacific at Clifford Chance, based in Hong Kong. Acknowledged by a peer as a “safe pair of hands” for trademark matters, Chu brings experience across prosecution, licensing and enforcement, among other areas.

Notable

Dentons retains its positions in the 2026 rankings having added three partners from Baker McKenzie in May this year. The scope of the role that the renowned Loke-Khoon Tan—who now heads up the IP & Technology practice in Hong Kong—will take on remains to be seen, but he brings a new prestige to the firm’s intellectual property practice. Also formerly at Baker McKenzie, Maria Joannides Smith now heads up the firm’s trademark practice, focusing on brand protection and enforcement strategies, and IP portfolio management.

Individuals worthy of Notable recognition this year include Xuefang Huang, head of the trademark team at Marks & Clerk, whose work highlights include securing well-known trademark status in China for marks belonging to a globally renowned automobile manufacturer. Head of IP Prosecution, China at Gowling WLG, Jian Xu provides strategic advice on all aspects of IP in business and has assisted numerous international companies with managing their trademark portfolios in China.

Overview:

WIPR’s China International Rankings (Contentious) identify the law firms and practitioners operating at the highest level of litigation and dispute resolution in Mainland China and Hong Kong.

International law firms, which lack rights of audience before PRC courts, rely on formal alliances with licensed Chinese law firms to handle local litigation and court hearings. Trademark practitioners at leading international firms report retaining overall strategic oversight and managing the client relationship throughout the process, from initial advice to resolution.

The WIPR Rankings team took account of factors including the significance of trademark cases both in administrative and court settings; success rates; client feedback; and market reputation.

As Chinese brand owners go global, contentious trademark work is expanding from inbound domestic enforcement to complex, multi-jurisdictional disputes across Europe, the US, and Asia.

Bad-faith squatters frequently attempt to pre-empt fast-growing Chinese companies in secondary markets, prompting firms to coordinate global disputes across multiple registries simultaneously. At the same time, as more Chinese brands enter Western markets, established local incumbents file infringement lawsuits in European and US courts to defend their local market share.

Outstanding

Two firms share the top spot this year for their ability to execute complex, high-stakes trademark disputes in China.

Bird & Bird and Hogan Lovells Cadwalader’s partnerships with Lawjay Partners and Fujian Fidelity, respectively, enable the firms to offer clients representation up to China’s highest courts, backed by their global brands expertise.

Bird & Bird uses its cross-border capabilities to coordinate litigation in the country and beyond. Examples include the firm’s work for Merck, in the biggest trademark and unfair competition claim the German pharma company has filed in China, against US company Merck Sharp & Dohme, with the dispute spanning numerous countries.

Also acknowledged for handling impactful litigation is Hogan Lovells Cadwalader, which operates as ‘Hogan Lovells Cadwalader Fidelity’ in the region. The firm has earned the respect of its peers for its involvement in high-profile trademark cases before China’s courts, and a major international client attests to the team’s “great legal advice for the best interests of clients”.

One of two Hogan Lovells Cadwalader lawyers to make the top tier this year, Zhen (Katie) Feng has handled numerous IP litigation cases, high-profile criminal and civil actions for major global brands.

Highly Recommended

Kilpatrick moves up a tier into Highly Recommended this year for its high success rates for clients—including a significant number of wins in opposition, invalidation and non-use cancellation decisions for Costco—and global trademark portfolio management for high-profile clients, which includes handling thousands of disputes.

A big player in Hong Kong, Deacons—which also has three Mainland China representative offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou—is known for handling high-stakes trademark litigation. The oldest and largest full-service independent law firm in Hong Kong, its clients have included major Chinese financial services company Ping An Insurance and e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba.

Known for its work in complex dispute resolution, Simmons & Simmons has built a client base in China that includes major multinational companies and well-known brands. The firm’s work highlights include handling numerous contentious administrative matters for a major US client; securing a recent win before the Beijing High Court in an invalidation case; and devising a multi-layered strategy in a long-running case involving bad-faith registrations. George Chan, head of the firm’s Beijing Intellectual Property Agency, is Highly Recommended for 2026; an international law firm partner says Chan is “extremely savvy, knows how to navigate the Chinese system”.

There is positive market feedback for Eugene Low, head of Hogan Lovells Cadwalader's IP practice in Hong Kong, said to be “very experienced and a very smart lawyer as well” as well as being well-regarded by clients.

Also with individual recognition this year, Mayer Brown senior consultant Gabriela Kennedy is “highly experienced and a good lawyer”, says a peer—although others question the proportion of her practice spent on trademarks. However, alongside her technology transactions work, she has advised many well-known brands on litigation strategies, handling trademark/passing off disputes and domain name-related matters.

Recommended

Loeb & Loeb makes its debut in the China International Trademarks Rankings this year. The firm strengthened its practice with the addition of experienced trademark partner Scott Palmer from Perkins Coie in 2024; Palmer and the team handle a number of high-profile administrative and civil litigation matters for major clients, securing favourable outcomes in China that protect key brands that are recognised across the world.

“AWA Asia is very good at understanding our clients’ needs and very responsive”. International referral partner

Also newly ranked in the Contentious category for 2026, AWA Asia works almost exclusively with international clients operating in China, and has recently secured a number of significant wins in the country on behalf of high-profile brands and multinational companies. An international law firm partner says the firm is “very good at understanding our needs and very responsive”.

Notable

“Magic Circle” firm Clifford Chance boosted its PRC legal capabilities in 2025 with the establishment of a joint operation in the Shanghai FTZ (Free Trade Zone) with boutique law firm Shanghai He Ping Law Firm. This year, the firm brought in Jonathan Chu from CMS to head its Asia Pacific IP team; Chu has a broad IP practice that includes transactions, disputes and commercial advisory.

With offices in Hong Kong and Beijing, Vivien Chan & Co has a busy docket of administrative and court trademark matters, and a client roster that includes LVMH Group, Yves Saint Laurent, MGM Studios and American Airlines.