This year, Asian Legal Business has spotlighted 15 IP practitioners across Asia who are recognised to have excelled in the increasingly strategic field. Through a solid track record, they have demonstrated themselves as reliable solution providers to their clients, formidable competitors to their peers, and creative pioneers to their followers.
What strategies do you credit for your recognition as one of ALB Asia’s Top 15 Intellectual Property Lawyers?
I have more than 25 years of experience in dealing with disputes related to various issues in the IP area. As an IP attorney, I have handled challenging and complicated cases across the field, including patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, and IP contract disputes. Navigating the labyrinth of IP law, I have endeavoured to explore issues proactively and figure out the optimal solution that my clients want from IP disputes. I believe such efforts have led to favorable outcomes.
Can you share a notable intellectual property case where your innovative approach led to a favorable outcome?
As it is hard to pick just one single notable case, I would like to talk about cases involving “trade secrets” in general. In the IP area, trade secret cases 1) revolve around technologies and industries with the greatest relevance in each era of history, and 2) usually entail a panoply of issues including civil and criminal cases as well as overseas disputes, posing a more daunting challenge than in any other IP areas, and thus demanding the highest caliber of experienced attorneys—all the more so because they often escalate into criminal cases, and attorneys must delve into a fact-finding mission and devise case-specific strategies based on the understanding of technology at issue. From 2000, I have been engaged in trade secret cases across various fields including mechanics, chemicals, communications, energy generation, LED, polysilicon, rechargeable batteries, and pharmaceuticals, accumulating know-how on digesting the technology at issue and delivering a holistic analysis of the trade secret infringement and a comprehensive set of ideas for raising the issue.
How do you stay updated on industry trends, and how has this commitment influenced your success in intellectual property law?
IP area, in its essence, is a legal framework on “technology and culture”. In other words, IP attorneys must equip themselves with the understanding of technology and culture defin-ing each era and the accompanying insight into the present legal system as well as foresight into potential legal issues in the future. With this in mind, I have always kept abreast of industry and technology trends and various events and new business in the area of culture in an effort to provide proactive input for new issues that figured on my clients’ radar. I believe such trend-monitoring efforts have opened up opportunities for me to be engaged in newly emerged disputes and high-profile cases.
