Vivien Chan & Co
Firm overview:
Vivien Chan & Co is a full-service law firm with established offices in Hong Kong, since 1985, and Beijing, since 1993. The firm is widely recognised as a premier practice in Greater China, combining deep local roots with an integrated global perspective.
The firm’s IP capability is a key pillar of its offering. Through its Hong Kong and Beijing offices, it provides direct access to the prosecution, enforcement and commercialisation of IP rights in Mainland China and Hong Kong, enabling seamless one-stop services for clients operating across borders. With more than 30 years of experience in the region’s IP and corporate law space, the firm has built an in-depth understanding of China’s legal culture and market dynamics.
The firm’s practice spans a broad range of industries and supports clients with IP portfolio strategy, anti-counterfeiting action, e-commerce enforcement, technology licensing and cross-border transactions. Its reputation is bolstered by recognition from major legal directories and client testimonials highlighting its responsiveness, practical approach and regional specialism.
Team overview:
The IP practice at Vivien Chan & Co is spearheaded by Vivien Chan, the firm’s founding and senior partner. With over four decades of experience, Chan is recognised as a pioneer in IP law in Hong Kong and Mainland China. She has advised multinational corporations on complex IP, corporate, and cross-border transactions since the 1980s, and was instrumental in shaping IP protection strategies during China’s opening-up era. Her leadership has earned her numerous accolades.
Supporting Chan is a seasoned team of partners and senior associates with multidisciplinary expertise across patent, trademark, and technology law, namely: Anna Mae Koo, Owen Tse, Fandy Ip and Ken Hung.
Koo specialises in IP portfolio management, brand protection, and commercialisation. Koo frequently advises global brands on anti-counterfeiting strategies, licensing, and enforcement throughout Greater China.
Tse has extensive experience in patent, design, and trademark litigation. His practice focuses on enforcement and dispute resolution, particularly in the luxury, technology, and pharmaceutical sectors.
Ip advises on both contentious and non-contentious IP matters, including licensing, franchising, and brand strategy. She also supports clients in navigating customs recordals and cross-border protection programmes.
Hung is a senior associate and registered patent attorney with a technical background in engineering. He focuses on patent prosecution, invention filings, and invalidation proceedings before the CNIPA.
The team is widely regarded for its bilingual capability and cross-jurisdictional coordination between its Hong Kong and Beijing offices, allowing clients seamless IP management across Greater China. Its approach emphasises strategic enforcement, commercial practicality, and sensitivity to regional enforcement trends, all qualities that have positioned the firm as one of the region’s most trusted IP advisors.
Key matters:
- Patent filling strategy for new chemical entity discovery in Hong Kong
The firm assisted a Korean-based biotech company focused on new chemical entity (NCE) discovery with the protection and prosecution of its patent rights in Hong Kong.
The team strategically advised on filing strategy to protect the client’s invention via the route of Original Grant Patent (OGP) claiming priority based on its Korean patent application. This allowed the patentee a direct and economical route to acquire patent protection in Hong Kong and saved on waiting time.
- Patent portfolio management in Greater China
The firm’s client is a world leading retail automotive services company, offering passenger car motor oils as well as other automotive lubricant products. The team assisted the client in protecting its inventions such as traction fluid composition, chemical compositions, motor lubricants, lubricant for use in electric and hybrid vehicles and methods of using the same, by filing invention patent applications in China.
Vivien Chan & Co also assisted the client in the assignment of its patents given the recent change in company structure. The work also included drafting specifications, responding to office actions raised by the CNIPA and handling the client’s transfer of patent rights caused by a buyout of its parent company by another global industry leader in the field within a tight timeline.
- Prosecution of national phase of PCT applications in China
The firm’s client is one of the world’s leading producers and providers of entertainment and information services. Vivien Chan’s team assisted the company in protecting its inventions—such as systems and methods to manage digital asset functionality—by filing invention patent applications either by claiming priority of the corresponding US applications or based on PCT applications.
The team also successfully secured patent registrations for inventions which are of particular importance to the client’s business in China.
