Lung Tin IP Attorneys
Firm overview:
A prominent full-service firm in China, Lung Tin IP Attorneys has significant reach within and outside of China. Headquartered in Beijing, the firm has branch offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Xi’an, Shenyang, Xiamen, Tianjin, Chongqing, Foshan, Wuhan, New York, Tokyo, Osaka, and Seoul.
The firm has been building up its patent practice, and now has a 380-strong team. Patent prosecution is a cornerstone of the firm’s practice, which also includes portfolio management, due diligence, and litigation. The calibre of the firm’s client base—which includes Qualcomm, Sanofi, Amazon, Tencent, Carlsberg and Ferrari—indicates Lung Tin’s eminence in patent matters. In 2024, the firm helped Xiaomi manage a portfolio of thousands of patents in foreign jurisdictions.
Highlighting the firm’s reputation in the international arena, Lung Tin was invited to join a global alliance of legal professionals dedicated to exploring ownership rights for robotic invention creations. As such, the team represented DABUS inventor Stephen Thaler in the first case in China to address whether artificial intelligence can be registered as a patent inventor.
Team overview:
Lung Tin has around 280 attorneys out of 500 staff members. The team includes a number of former senior CNIPA examiners, a former CNIPA deputy commissioner and a former vice-chair of FICPI China. The firm has over 40 dual-qualified patent attorneys and lawyers.
Senior patent attorney and board member Qinghong Xu has worked in the IP field since 2000, and specialises in handling European and US IP affairs. Xu is a registered patent attorney before the US Patent and Trademark Office, and has conducted in-depth research on patent law, trademark law and related practices in China, Europe and the US.
Jacob (Siyue) Zhang is also a senior patent attorney at the firm, with broad expertise in the protection of innovations. Zhang’s practice covers patent prosecution, invalidity, portfolio development and litigation, and he has represented multiple Fortune 500 companies in over 1,000 patent prosecution and litigation cases.
Key matters:
- LG Energy Solution: Patent analysis and advisory work
Lung Tin was commissioned by LG Energy Solution, a subsidiary of South Korea’s LG Group, to conduct a comprehensive study of its power battery patents in China. The work involved analysing China’s mainstream power battery products and demonstrating the alignment/cooperation potential between LG’s patent portfolio and local products.
The team’s work provided data to support IP negotiations between LG Energy Solutions and Chinese new energy companies. Yongqian Li was the lead partner for the matter.
- Joie China: Patent invalidation and civil litigation cases
Lung Tin represented plaintiff Joie, a Dutch manufacturer of a baby swing seat, in a patent suit against a defendant which produced allegedly infringing products. The team launched a series of lawsuits against different product brands in various courts nationwide.
The outcome was that the client’s patents were successfully maintained after several rounds of invalidation procedures, and the infringement claims were supported by the courts.
Partners Bo Xu and Lijuan Mu led the team for Lung Tin.
- Corning: Administrative patent lawsuits
Founded in New York in 1851, Fortune 500-company Corning is a global leader in special glass and ceramic materials. In 2022, Beijing Shanke Technology filed invalidation requests against three of Corning’s Chinese patents relating to its Eagle XS glass product. The CNIPA declared the three patents invalid.
Lung Tin filed corresponding administrative lawsuit with the Beijing IP court, resulting in the invalidation decisions being revoked.
Xing Kang led the team, which also included Wei Liu and Jing Fu.
Clients:
Amazon, American Express, BOE, Carlsberg, Corning, Ferrari, Halliburton, Kimberly Clark, Koch industries, Kyocera, LG, MediaTek, Metso, Qualcomm, Robert Bosch, Sanofi, Tencent, TSMC, Valmet, Xiaomi
