LexField Law Offices has been gaining more recognition for its IP practice and the firm rises up a tier in both patent and trade mark contentious work this year, and appears for the first time on the trade mark prosecution table. The arrival of managing partner Jiang Hongyi two years ago has bolstered the firm's litigation capacity: "Jiang Hongyi is definitely a tier-one litigator, arguably the best out there," says a partner at a foreign firm.
Jiang and Jan Liu, another of the firm's managing partners, led the charge for Google China to sue Beijing Guge Science & Technology for trade mark infringement and unfair competition. Beijing Guge registered a trade mark in Chinese that is based on Google's English name and the court ruled that this constituted unfair competition. In another case, Jiang advised Hubei Wu Shi Pharmaceutical all the way through to the Supreme People's Court to defend the client against a patent infringement claim filed by a competitor. The Court ruled that Hubei Wu Shi had not infringed the patent and revoked the rulings of the first and second instances.