"We have no motivation to use other law firms because Fangda Partners is so good, especially for civil matters," says a client. While some other general firms took away groups of practitioners from one of the earliest Chinese IP firms to start up an IP practice, Fangda is proud of the fact that it built up the team from scratch itself. It now comprises five partners and senior advisor Jiang Zhipei. The firm moves up a tier in the trade mark contentious ranking this year, reflecting the market's recognition of its litigation prowess.
Demonstrating the firm's command of designing and executing effective litigation strategies, partners Dixon Zhang and Gordon Gao and Jiang took charge of a case on unfair competition for Advanced Micro-fabrication Equipment (AMEC), which sued US rival Applied Materials in Shanghai. The latter had previously sued AMEC for trade mark infringement in the US in 2007. The two sides reached a global settlement in February 2010. The trio also acted for a European chemical company in an anti-monopoly dispute in the same year. The case shows Fangda's expertise in handling anti-monopoly matters in China.
Another interesting case handled by the IP team was assisting Yi Jianlian, a Chinese NBA basketball player, in a trade mark registration dispute which obtained a court judgement confirming Yi Jianlian as a well-known trade mark in China. This is one of the few cases where the court recognises the name of a celebrity could be held as a well-known trade mark. "The firm provides very high-quality service and stable advice. They always try to explain things to us in detail. Most of our work was done or supervised by Dixon Zhang and he is a very honest and trustworthy lawyer," says a client who uses Fangda on litigation cases.