Christine Yiu

I am an intellectual property partner at Bird & Bird China, based in our Shanghai office. Together with our association law firm Lawjay, we have represented numerous companies in achieving excellent results of IP protection in China.

I have experience in assisting companies to protect their valuable innovations in the form of copyright, data rights, goodwill, trademark, design, as well as utility models and invention patents. I have worked with companies from a wide range of sectors including semiconductor, software, healthcare, chemicals, consumer and retail, and industrial machineries. One unique factor that distinguishes Bird & Bird is that most of our team members have science backgrounds and are certainly not afraid to dive deep into tech - I myself graduated with a first class engineering degree in Electronics & Information Science, and studied biochemistry as part of my science degree curriculum.

I have more than 15 years' experience in China and handled a number of cross border, high value disputes. Many of our cases achieved results which exceed client expectations and certainly above the average odds, including obtaining landmark damages and preliminary injunctions, and overturning a first instance decision when the client came to us on appeal. Apart from advising on litigation strategies, I also guide companies through other ways of monetarising their innovations via tech deals and licensing transactions. I have worked on a number of M&A projects in which IP due diligence is a core element. I also frequently work with companies in setting up their internal IP policy, localising their IP contracts, and devising the inventor incentive and remuneration programme, all tailored specifically to the IP environments in China.

I am an expert on the competition law issue of FRAND, resulting from the undertakings given by patent owners to various standard setting organisations as part of their IP policies, and I advise our international clients on their development around the world.

• Representing a well-known mobile technology company with their SEP patent and competition law matters in China.
• Obtaining favourable judgments in patent infringement litigation and invalidation proceedings on behalf of an European packaging company against their competitor.
• Successfully defending an international retail and consumer company against a threat of an infringement claim brought by trademark hijackers in China.
• Obtaining a favourable judgment on behalf of an international luxury hotel chain against a local real property developer in China.
• Devising and executing an IP protection strategy for an international industry equipment company including the use of administrative, criminal, and civil actions.
• Representing chemical companies in patent invalidation, IP enforcement, and trade secret litigation.