Panawell & Partners
Firm overview:
Boutique firm Panawell & Partners is well placed to provide the full suite of IP services. Licensed by the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) and State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), the firm covers patent drafting and filing, licensing, assignment and enforcement.
From its beginnings in primarily serving the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), its subsidiary R&D institutes and Chinese universities and enterprises seeking IP protection in China, Panawell has expanded its team and scope to include international clients. The firm continues to gain recognition for the quality of its non-contentious patent services, with the team’s scientific and technical expertise providing a solid foundation for incisive counsel.
Team overview:
Panawell has offices in Beijing and Japan. For team bonding and respite from busy schedules, the firm organises occasional day trips for its members to enjoy China’s cultural and natural wonders. In April 2025 the team visited the city of Tai’an and climbed the famous Mount Tai.
Partner and patent attorney Shu Xu retired from the firm at the end of 2024 after 18 years at Panawell and almost four decades in the IP industry.
Richard Yong Wang, a partner, attorney-at-law and patent attorney at the firm, is a safe pair of hands for non-contentious patent work in China. Formerly the director of the Electrical and Electronic Department at China Patent Agent (HK) Ltd, Wang has handled thousands of patent applications for foreign and domestic clients.
William Wenquan Yang is another key team member with significant expertise in patent matters, gained over the course of his career spanning over 26 years. Yang has been recognised within and outside of China for his IP practice, which covers litigation and non-contentious issues.
Key matters:
- Invalidation of invention patent
A work highlight for Panawell in 2024 was securing a favourable result for a client in a patent invalidation case following two years of work. The CNIPA declared the patent—entitled ‘Carrier having non-orthogonal axes’—invalid on the grounds it lacked inventive step. Panawell’s team found prior art documents that had not been found by either USPTO or CNIPA examiners during the examination of the US and China versions of the patent.
Panawell’s team included former partner and senior consultant Qiang Hu, partner Feng Xu, and lawyer Chunxi Guo.
