Liu, Shen & Associates

The firm has a unique position in China as it is the first law firm in China that has been designated by Chinese government agencies to represent foreign applicants in filing and prosecuting patent applications and in registering trademarks in China. The firm thus has the capability to serve its clients in all phases of intellectual property: acquisition/disposition of the rights, management/transfer/licensing of the rights, investment with the rights, enforcement and protection of the rights, and related litigation and administrative proceedings.

The firm has over 230 professionals. Among them, 22 have Ph.D. degrees and 155 have master degrees; and 35 are attorneys at law, 130 patent attorneys, and 8 trademark agents (many practice concurrently as attorneys at law and patent attorneys/trademark agents).

The practice of the firm mainly focuses on intellectual property and related laws and practices, including: patents; trademarks; copyright; unfair competition; trade secrets; licensing and transfer of technology; joint ventures, e-commerce; and related trial and appellate litigation as well as dispute resolutions before administrative authorities. The firm files and prosecutes thousands of patent applications and files over 1,000 trademark registrations each year, and has represented clients in a number of high profile IP litigations.

The firm's clients range from individual inventors and start-up companies to some of the world's largest multinational corporations, covering chemical engineering, chemistry, pharmaceutics and biology, electronics, computer technology, information technology, electrical and mechanical engineering, physics and e-commerce.

The strength of Liu, Shen & Associates is built on the expertise of its people in the area of intellectual property and related laws and practices and their quality services. Most partners have been leading practitioners in the area for more than two decades, and the majority of the professionals have advanced degrees in various majors. All the professionals are at least bilingual. The firm's foreign language capabilities include English, German and Japanese, with most of the supporting staff having a good command of English.

Managing Intellectual Property (MIP), a global IP periodical based in U.K., published its survey of the leading patent firms in 65 markets in 2006, which for the first time included the China market, where our firm Liu, Shen & Associates was named as China IP Firm of 2006. Our firm was again named as the China IP firm of 2007, 2008 and 2009, being the only top tier firm for both categories of patent prosecution (including trademark and associated work) and contentious patent work (including other legal work, such as enforcement and licensing) in China.

Further, Asia Law Business (ALB), a leading legal magazine based in Hong Kong, awarded Liu, Shen & Associates the Intellectual Property Law Firm of the Year 2007 and the Year 2008.