Our IP practice in China - Freshfields

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Here in China, we have a team of largely Mandarin-speaking lawyers, many having technical backgrounds. Our team works on PRC law IP issues day in, day out. We also help our Chinese clients with IP issues arising on outbound transactions and work with lawyers across the Freshfields network to provide a comprehensive and unified approach to resolving your IP issues. We share knowledge and best practice across the Freshfields network to ensure that we deliver a co‐ordinated international approach. We advise in key strategic areas • IP litigation, involving patents, trade marks, passing off, copyright and confidential information; • IP and IT transactional advice in M&A, joint ventures and initial public offerings; • negotiation of brand licensing and trade mark co-existence arrangements and IP commercial agreements such as franchising, sponsorship, distribution and manufacturing/sourcing agreements; • co-ordination and strengthening of China trade mark, domain name, patent and copyright portfolios and harmonising global filing strategies; • solutions to advertising and unfair competition issues; • development of practical business protocols that help reduce the threat of IP leakage and help realise the value of clients’ IP rights; • internet-related advice, covering e-commerce, m-commerce and new media issues, including website development, encryption, e-banking, international cyber-piracy and domain name disputes; • IT-related transactions and litigation, including software development transactions, licensing arrangements (technology transfer), systems procurement and integration, research and development collaborations and transactions involving major IT and business process outsourcing and business separation (spin-offs); and • data protection advice on stand-alone compliance projects, enforcement actions and corporate transactions. Finalist IP Law Firm of the Year Asian Legal Business Law Awards Hong Kong 2011 2 Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer llp Create, protect and maximise your IP
We offer not just reach but also real depth of expertise Examples of our recent IP experience in China. These should give you a flavour of the types of matters we take on and how we handle them: PepsiCo in its strategic alliance with Tingyi-Asahi When PepsiCo, the world’s second-largest food and beverage company, wanted to form a strategic alliance with one of its largest counterparts in China, Tingyi‐Asahi Beverages, it turned to us. The IP and commercial aspects were central to this deal. PepsiCo swapped its China bottling operations for an equity stake in Tingyi-Asahi Beverages. If approved by regulators, Tingyi-Asahi Beverages will become the master franchise bottler for PepsiCo’s branded non-alcoholic beverages in China and will be granted exclusive rights to manufacture and distribute all of PepsiCo’s signature non-alcoholic beverages, including Pepsi, 7Up, Gatorade and Tropicana, boosting PepsiCo’s platform. This was a truly landmark deal in the China market and was awarded China Business Law Journal’s 2011 Deal of the Year in the category of foreign direct investment. The deal showcases our unmatched ability to structure and execute complex crossborder and cross-cultural franchise and branding deals. It is also a great illustration of the breadth of our IP practice in China, and of the benefits of Freshfields’ broad international platform and strength in all key practice areas. We worked closely with colleagues in our corporate, antitrust, tax and dispute resolution departments from our Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, New York and London offices to bring off this deal. Dyson in a patent and copyright infringement action in Hong Kong Dyson has an enviable reputation for innovation. Its vacuum cleaners and other household appliances are protected by more than 700 granted patents and over a thousand patent applications. However, when it brought out its Air Multiplier bladeless fan to widespread acclaim, it almost immediately faced a major counterfeiting threat from low-cost manufacturers in China. That was bad enough, but when a major and previously reputable high-street retailer in Hong Kong began selling a high‐quality copy, Dyson’s whole reputation for innovation and unique product features began to be called into question on blogs and chat sites in the territory. So when we received the call from the UK late one evening in 2011, we leapt into action. Our client had just learnt that its first patent for the Air Multiplier would issue in Hong Kong a few days later, so we had to act fast. After a few weeks gathering evidence and putting the submissions together, two hearings (and very little sleep), Freshfields had secured a rare interim patent and copyright injunction at the High Court in Hong Kong to block further marketing and sales of the infringing product. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer llp Create, protect and maximise your IP 3
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Our IP practice in China - Freshfields

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