Established in 1998, ZY Partners is recognized as one of the leading firms in the field of intellectual property and areas within its immediate reticular formation such as anti-trust, fair-competition, employment, standards, investment, product liability and administrative law.
Given the fact that 99% of the legal authorities governing nowadays’ social and economic life came into being way after most of the partners of the firm went into practice, ZY Partners is “pre-historical” in many cases representing the formative stages of many IP laws and court practices.
Early cases represented by the firm were cited as legislation initiatives and replied upon in forming judicial opinions by the courts.
◆ COPYRIGHT
Lawyers of ZY Partners successfully represented the first case for enforcing Walt Disney’s copyright against a state-owned publishing house in Beijing by applying the 1992 Sino-US Memorandum of Understanding on Intellectual Property.
ZY Partners successfully enforced copyrights of ETS concerning TOEFL, GRE and GMAT against New Oriental training entities.
◆ PATENT
In 2000, ZY Partners successfully defended a prominent mobile phone manufacturer in the first case brought by domestic patentee against multinational telecom company for patent infringement in a Chinese court.
In 2001, ZY Partner represented the first CPU patent case in a Chinese court against a Taiwan based CPU maker.
In 2003, ZY Partners won the first two preliminary injunction rulings for one of its pharmaceutical clients against a domestic pharm company based on a pharmaceutical process patent.
◆ JOINT RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CONTRACT
In 1992, lawyers of ZY Partners won the first retrial case in the Supreme People’s Court under the then Rules of Civil Procedure (on trial basis) and overruled an appellate decision made by the High Court of the Jiangsu Province, thus solidified principles of risk allocation in cooperative research and development activities.
◆ TRADE SECRET
In 2003, ZY Partners successfully advocated client’s due process right through retrial proceedings in the Supreme People’s Court to set aside a substantive decision made by the High Court of the Jiangsu Province based on opponent’s trade secret evidence admitted and recognized in absence of cross-examination for protection of evidence involving trade secret.
◆ TRADEMARK
In the Saridon case first started in administrative proceedings in 2001, the Supreme People’s Court endorsed ZY’s argument that the distinctive characters of trademark should be evaluated by the actual use of the mark, rather than by regulatory body’s administrative conduct that documented the mark as a generic name of a drug.
At ZY Partners, we like to regard ourselves as an established firm with creative ideas. Though the track record of the firm is cherished as traditional assets representing our unparalleled expertise in intellectual property, anti-trust, business, compliance and litigation, the dedication and practical solutions are the source of our clients’ satisfaction for our legal service.
Big data reveals that in the immediate past three years, ZY Partners stands top 5 in the country in intellectual property in terms of the number of cases decided or ruled by courts of various jurisdictions in mainland China. Measured by the number of the cases per lawyer, our elite team of lawyers handles more cases at higher frequencies.
In the period of 2014 to 2017, the Supreme Court case publication website published more than 600 intellectual property cases represented by our firm. Quite a few of those cases have been listed by the Supreme or lower level courts as guiding cases.
Founded in 1998
50 people in their team
ZY Partners has a prominent IP litigation practice as a result of the remarkable track record of our lawyers over the past decades. We are committed to serving the best interests of our clients through consistently workable solutions and out-of-box ideas and strategies. We perceive ourselves as reliable partners to our clients in solving the problems they deal with in China.
Our firm has recognized experiences in conducting IP trials and appellate work in the areas of patents, copyright, trademark, unfair competition and trade secrets. All partners of the firm are experienced IP litigators. They have been in the China IP circle for around 25 years, and still vigorously litigating in Chinese courts nationwide to protect our clients’ interests in some very complicated situations.
With the support of technical background in various technical areas of our litigators, our litigation team has unparalleled experience and unique abilities in handling complex IP litigations and technology-related matters inChina. Quite a few of our cases have been published as guiding precedents by the Supreme People’s Court, the Beijing High Court and courts in other parts of China.
ZY Partners’ team includes very experienced lawyers in the area of employment/labor disputes. In particular, our attorneys with regulatory administrative background in government authorities provide valuable insight in forming strategic plans to protect clients’ interests in China.
We provide one-stop legal services for our corporate clients for matters relating to the management of employment affairs and labor disputes by offering legal advice, negotiating with employees and representing clients in arbitration and litigation proceedings.
Our practices cover providing legal advice on general labor related matters based on daily operation, drafting company labor rules and policies, drafting proposal for massive layoff, negotiating with employees, advising on non-compete and special training terms and conditions, and handling the application for foreigner’s work permit in Mainland China, etc.
Corporate affairs: the team has extensive professional knowledge and experience in corporate affairs. We provide the most effective advices on equity structure, owners’ equity management, corporate governance, share transfer, drafting and reviewing transaction documents, tax, employment, foreigners’ employment in Mainland China, foreign exchange control, intellectual property and regulatory compliance in a wide range of industries in China.
We advise our clients on their day-to-day operations, and we also offer assistance to ensure their compliance with all applicable tax laws, foreign exchange controls, employment, environmental protection issues, customs, technology regulations and antitrust or unfair competition matters. We draft all types of business contracts for our clients according to their nature of business and requirements, such as supply contracts, sale contracts, agency contracts, leasing contracts, financing contracts, licensing contract, IP transfer contract, import and export contracts.
Commercial affairs: the team has an extensive commercial practice and acquired outstanding achievements in commercial areas. We have represented many clients in their business transactions inChina, and our continually expanding client base includes some of the world’s largest multinationals, as well as many small and mid-sized companies.
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