Areas of practice
Mr. Mao specializes in patent invalidation proceedings, patent and trade secrets infringement litigations. He provides legal services in patent validity analysis, I.P. litigations, and I.P. due diligence as well.
Mr. Mao represents renowned multinational companies to win high-profile cases before the Supreme People’s Court, some of which were among the Supreme People’s Court’s Top 10 Intellectual Property cases. He has represented famous multinational corporations, especially telecommunications companies, in disputes involving royalty rates for standard-essential patents, trade secrets, and software patents in Beijing, Shanghai, and Jiangsu courts.
Mr. Mao has successfully led and represented many challenging and complex civil/commercial litigation and arbitration cases with a large amount in dispute. He is responsible for laying out the overall strategy as well as further implementing it. He is familiar with and deeply understands the adjudicative thinking mode and ways of operation within courts and arbitral institutions, and thereby can provide constructive suggestions and implementable advice to clients. Mr. Mao’s influential cases in the industry include but are not limited to:
- Represented Sichuan Golden―Elephant Sincerity Chemical Co., Ltd. (GESC) before the Supreme People’s Court, which obtained compensation of 220 million yuan. Up to now, the case has the highest amount of compensation in the field of intellectual property disputes.
- Represented a large Chinese chemical group against a Shanxi company before the Supreme People’s Court, which obtained the compensation of 200 million yuan. Up to now, the case has the highest amount of compensation in the field of trade secrets disputes.
- Represented a large mechanical equipment company in Shenyang before the Supreme People’s Court. Sixteen persons and enterprises in total were ruled guilty, which has the largest number of criminals in the field of intellectual property.
- Represented Daiichi Sankyo Company Limited and successfully changed the judgment of the second trial before the Supreme People’s Court. This case created a judicial standard for the amendments and creativity of Markush claim. The case was selected as one of the top 10 Intellectual Property Cases of the year 2017 by the Supreme People’s Court.
- Represented a Swiss multinational company and successfully changed the judgment of the second trial before the Supreme People’s Court. In this case, the Supreme People’s Court established the rule of “Maximum Reasonable Interpretation” for the first time, which was subsequently cited by a large number of judicial decisions.
- Represented an American multinational company against a Suzhou ultrasonic equipment manufacturer before Wuxi Intermediate People’s Court, Jiangsu.
- Represented a French multinational company and successfully changed the judgment of the second trial before the Supreme People’s Court. In this case, the Supreme People’s Court established the guiding judicial standard for claims amendments beyond the scope.
- Represented Baidu in 17 cases involving patent infringement, invalidity, and administrative litigation against Sogou before Beijing Intellectual Property Court and the Patent Reexamination and Invalidation Department (PRD). The serial cases were known as “the first case of Internet patent.”
- Represented a famous Chinese telecom company in 21 cases involving patent invalidity, administrative litigation, and civil infringement against a well-known South-Korean telecom company, which involved the first batch of standard essential patent infringement lawsuits in China.
- Represented Silead Inc. in 6 cases involving patent invalidity and infringement against Goodix, reaching a total amount of 380 million yuan involving the acquisition of listed companies and the approval of the CSRC. The amount in dispute is the highest in the history of the Chinese enterprises’ listing process.
- Represented a renowned Finland telecom company in handling more than 60 patent infringement lawsuits and invalidation proceedings against a prominent Chinese telecom company and more than 10 patent infringement lawsuits and invalidation proceedings against another famed Chinese telecom company. These cases are the largest series of standard essential patent lawsuits in China.
Mr. Mao was a member of the workgroup on revising the Patent Examination Guideline; and represented the Patent Reexamination Board of the State Intellectual Property Office to provide the Supreme People’s Court with legal opinions regarding the Judicial Interpretation of Deciding Patent Infringement and the Judicial Interpretation of Deciding Patent Right Verification; and drafted some section of the Guideline for Patent Administrative Enforcement. He has published several academic essays in Patent Law Research, Chinese Patent and Trademark, Electronics Intellectual Property, China Innovation & Patent, and Arbitration in Beijing, which explore standard-essential patents, business method patents, rules of evidence in I.P. litigations, and I.P. arbitration in depth.
Work experience
From 2007 to 2011, Mr. Mao worked in the Patent Reexamination Board of the State Intellectual Property Office, mainly engaged in patent invalidation procreedings and administrative litigations.
Mr. Mao joined King & Wood Mallesons in 2011. He has been engaged in intellectual property litigations since then, including patent litigations, trade secrets litigations, intellectual property due diligence, etc.
Mr. Mao obtained his B.Sc. degree in Electronic Information Engineering in 2004 and LL.M. degree in Intellectual Property Law in 2007 from Wuhan University, and Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) in 2023 from Tsinghua University.
He was admitted to the P.R. China bar in 2007 and became a Chinese patent attorney in 2010.
Mr. Mao’s working languages are English and Chinese.
