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Cross-Border Intellectual Property Counsel · Beijing

When your technology meets the Chinese market, you need a counsel who can read both the patent and the courtroom.

Zhaofeng Wang advises overseas technology and manufacturing companies on patent, trade secret, trademark and copyright matters in China — bringing ten years of engineering practice to every brief.

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10+
Years Engineering
(Mobile Core, Huawei)
20+
Countries Served
(Global Roll-outs)
LL.M.
Intellectual Property
Beijing Inst. of Tech.
EN / 中
Fluent Working
Languages

Why Engage This Counsel

Three reasons foreign clients trust the brief

Every engagement is anchored in the same three commitments.

01

Engineering Pedigree

A decade at Huawei building mobile core networks for operators in 20+ countries — Telefonica, Telkom, Vimplecom and others. The technical record of your case will not need to be explained twice.

02

Court-Tested Results

Patent invalidations won. Infringement suits defended — often by attacking the technical evidence at its root. Trade secrets protected, and defended when misappropriated.

03

Bilingual by Default

Fluent written and spoken English. Briefings, strategy memos, pleadings and hearings handled end-to-end without translation friction — so nothing is lost between languages.

Selected Work

Matters that demonstrate the difference

Anonymised summaries of recent engagements. Full case analyses on the Cases page.

Patent · Infringement Defence

Hubei Electrical Appliance Manufacturer — Multi-Million RMB Defence

Forensic reading of a control chip's logic flow, combined with legitimate-source and non-infringement defences, eliminated multi-million RMB loss exposure.

Read the Case →
Patent · Invalidation

Zhangjiagang Elevator Decor Co. — Core Patent Revived

When CNIPA invalidated the client's core elevator patent, mechanical analysis of the system rebutted each piece of cited evidence and restored the commercial interest.

Read the Case →
Patent · Infringement Defence

Liaoning Petrochemical Machinery — Suit Withdrawn

Fatal evidentiary gaps in the plaintiff's proof were identified and a prior-art, non-infringement defence assembled. The plaintiff withdrew the suit.

Read the Case →
All Representative Cases

The Flagship Difference

Why China IP is a discipline of its own

First-to-file trademarks. Absolute novelty patents. No discovery in the US sense. Three forums — CNIPA, the People's Courts and the Supreme People's Court — with different procedures and different timelines.

Foreign rights-holders need a counsel who can navigate all three, in English, without losing the technical thread.

Explore Cross-Border IP
"The client's question is never 'what is the Chinese law?' — it is 'what will actually happen in my case?' The answer requires reading the technical record, the evidence and the courtroom at once." — Working philosophy

Tell us what is happening in China.
We will tell you what to do next.

A confidential 30-minute consultation, in English, under privilege. No obligation, no pressure — just a clear read on your position.

Request a Consultation

About

The engineer who became the litigator

A rare dual identity: a decade building mobile core networks for operators in more than twenty countries, then a rigorous legal education and courtroom practice in intellectual property.

Zhaofeng Wang — Cross-Border IP Counsel
Zhaofeng Wang (Hughes) Attorney at Beijing Hengdu Law Firm
Patent Litigation Trade Secrets Trademark Copyright 3GPP / 5GC English · 中文

Professional Narrative

From Huawei's core network to the core of IP disputes

Zhaofeng Wang began his career in telecommunications engineering — first at Shanghai Bell Alcatel, then for fourteen years across two stints culminating in a decade at Huawei Technologies, where he served as a Mobile Packet Core Engineer and technical specialist. He designed networks, delivered major projects, lectured at the Shanghai R&D Centre and for Huawei's Russian training programmes, and supported more than thirty major projects across twenty-plus countries.

In 2022 he turned to the law. He earned an LL.M. in Intellectual Property Law from Beijing Institute of Technology — his master's thesis examined the head-knowledge defence in trade secret law — and interned as a judge's assistant at the Beijing Intellectual Property Court, one of the four specialised IP courts in China.

Today, as a practising lawyer at Beijing Hengdu Law Firm, he represents foreign and domestic technology companies in patent infringement disputes, patent invalidation proceedings, trade secret protection, and trademark and copyright matters — and advises research institutes on trade secret governance. He is a member of the China Intellectual Property Research Society.

"When the technical record is the case, the lawyer who built the technical record is the lawyer you want beside you." — Positioning statement

Career Path

May 2026 — Present

Attorney

Beijing Hengdu Law Firm

IP litigation, trade secret protection and technology-related commercial disputes.

Aug 2025 — May 2026

Attorney

Beijing Gaopeng & Partners

Patent and trade secret disputes for technology clients.

Jun 2024 — Aug 2025

Trainee Lawyer

Beijing Xuanyan Law Firm

Civil and commercial disputes, patent and trade secret matters.

Jun 2023 — Aug 2023

Internship · Judge's Assistant

Beijing Intellectual Property Court

Exposure to the working of China's specialised IP bench.

Sep 2010 — Oct 2015，Jan 2018 — May 2022

Mobile Packet Core Engineer

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd

Expert in 3GPP protocols and Huawei core-network solutions; network design, project delivery, major-incident resolution; supported 30+ projects in 20+ countries.

Mar 2008 — Jun 2010

Mobile Core Engineer

Shanghai Guoxiang Info Technologies / Shanghai Bell Alcatel

Early career in mobile core network engineering.

Education & Credentials

A curriculum built for the technical client

Degrees

  • Master of Law · 2022 — 2025

    Intellectual Property Law

    Beijing Institute of Technology. Master's thesis: A Study of the Head Knowledge Defense in Trade Secret Law.

  • Master of Arts · 2016 — 2017

    Ministry Leadership / Vocational Stewardship

    Moody Theological Seminary, Chicago.

  • Bachelor of Engineering · 2004 — 2008

    Telecommunications Engineering

    Xi'an University of Posts & Telecommunications.

Professional Memberships

  • Membership

    China Intellectual Property Research Society

    Active member, contributing to scholarship and discourse on Chinese IP law.

  • Languages

    English — Professional Fluency

    Fluent in written and spoken English; comfortable drafting, advocacy and client communication in both languages.

Want to know if your matter fits?

A 30-minute call will tell you more than a month of reading websites.

Book a Consultation

Practice Areas

Intellectual property, handled for technology companies

Every practice area below is delivered with the same discipline: read the technology first, then read the law against it.

01 · PATENT

Patent Litigation & Invalidation

Patent disputes are decided as much in the claim chart as in the courtroom. Our engineering background lets us interrogate both with equal rigour.

  • Patent infringement litigation (plaintiff & defendant)
  • Invalidation proceedings before CNIPA and the Beijing IP Court
  • Freedom-to-operate and non-infringement analyses
  • Existing-technique and legitimate-source defences
  • Patent stability and enforceability opinions
02 · TRADE SECRET

Trade Secret Protection & Defence

Trade secrets — from algorithms to client lists to manufacturing know-how — demand a governance framework and, when breached, a decisive response.

  • Trade secret management programmes and audits
  • Head-knowledge defence analysis for departing employees
  • Misappropriation claims: civil, administrative and criminal referral
  • Evidence preservation and injunction applications
  • Contractual frameworks: NDA, non-compete, IP assignment
03 · TRADEMARK

Trademark Disputes

China's first-to-file system rewards speed — and punishes the unwary. We help foreign brands secure, defend and enforce their marks.

  • Trademark opposition, refusal review and invalidation
  • Anti-squatting actions and bad-faith registration challenges
  • Administrative enforcement against infringers
  • Brand protection strategy for market entry
  • Well-known mark recognition assistance
04 · COPYRIGHT

Copyright Matters

Software, content and creative works need protection beyond the obvious. We handle the full spectrum of copyright disputes.

  • Infringement litigation and evidence preservation
  • Software copyright protection and dispute resolution
  • Online piracy takedown and cease-and-desist campaigns
  • Licensing and assignment review
  • Platform and e-commerce enforcement
"Technology companies do not come to a lawyer to be educated about the law. They come to be represented in it — quickly, precisely and in their own language." — How each practice area is approached

Also Serving

Technology-Related Commercial Matters

IP disputes rarely arrive alone. Contracts, licensing and employment issues travel with them — and are handled in the same engagement.

05 · COMMERCIAL

Contract & Commercial Disputes

Construction, purchase-sale, leasing and private-lending disputes — including large-scale labour negotiation and mediation work.

06 · ADVISORY

Corporate & IP Advisory

Annual legal counsel for technology companies: contract review, IP governance, compliance and dispute prevention.

Not sure which practice area fits?

Describe the situation in a sentence or two — we will map it to the right route.

Describe Your Matter

Cross-Border IP

Your technology crossed a border. Your protection should too.

The flagship difference: a Chinese IP counsel who speaks the language of your engineers, your lawyers and your business — all three.

Section 01

Why China IP is a different discipline

The rules that protect your IP at home may not protect it here — and some of them may hurt you. A foreign rights-holder needs this landscape explained plainly.

Ⅰ

Three forums, three procedures

The CNIPA, the People's Courts and the Supreme People's Court each handle IP differently. Invalidation, infringement and enforcement do not travel in one straight line — they interact.

Ⅱ

First-to-file & absolute novelty

Trademarks go to whoever files first — not first to use. Patents require absolute novelty worldwide. Both rules punish delay and reward disciplined filing strategy.

Ⅲ

A different evidence world

No US-style discovery. Evidence preservation applications, not subpoenas. The proof culture is different — and preparation starts before the dispute, not after.

Ⅳ

Timelines that reward speed

Injunctions, evidence preservation and administrative enforcement move fast — and correctly — when the groundwork has been laid in advance.

Ⅴ

A counsel is non-optional

Filing a patent in China without local counsel is possible. Defending one in litigation is not. The question is only which counsel — and whether they can read your technology.

Ⅵ

The wrong counsel is costly

A generic commercial lawyer without technical depth will translate your dispute into boilerplate. The cost is measured in lost claims, not just legal fees.

Section 02

Where we help foreign rights-holders

From pre-market planning to post-judgment enforcement — the full arc of IP protection in China.

Before Market Entry

  • Pre-market risk assessments and freedom-to-operate analyses
  • Defensive portfolio strategy and China filing strategy
  • Trademark clearance and early filing to pre-empt squatters
  • Trade secret governance design before you enter the market
  • Supply-chain and OEM/IP ownership structuring

In a Live Dispute

  • Patent invalidation proceedings before CNIPA / Beijing IP Court
  • Infringement litigation — as plaintiff or defendant
  • Evidence preservation and pre-suit injunction applications
  • Online and offline infringement monitoring campaigns
  • Administrative enforcement and criminal referral

Section 03

What working together looks like, from abroad

English-speaking intake

Your first call, your strategy memos and your updates are in English. No internal translation bottleneck, no meaning lost between languages.

Direct coordination with your counsel

If you already have foreign counsel of record, we coordinate directly — filings, deadlines and strategy in lockstep.

Transparent engagement

Clear scope, defined milestones, predictable fee arrangements. You approve the strategy memo before any engagement begins.

FAQ

Common questions, answered plainly

Yes — a substantial share of our work is for overseas clients and their foreign counsel. Initial consultations are held by video call, and updates are delivered in English on an agreed cadence.

You may instruct us directly. Where your jurisdiction or preference requires coordination through your foreign counsel, we work in that structure too — and many engagements are precisely that.

The initial consultation is confidential and under privilege. We will ask for the essentials — the technology, the dispute or the market-entry plan — and advise on what should be shared in writing afterwards.

Every engagement opens with a written strategy memo that sets out scope, milestones and a transparent fee envelope. Court and official fees are itemised separately. No surprise invoices.

IP disputes are decided on the technical record — claim elements, prior art, device behaviour, data flows. A counsel who built telecom networks reads that record natively, finds the decisive detail, and explains it to the court in terms that win.

It depends on forum and complexity — from several months for administrative enforcement to two to three years for a full patent infringement suit with parallel invalidation. The strategy memo sets expectations honestly from day one.

A foreign right in China deserves a Chinese counsel who reads your technology.

Start with a confidential call — in English, at no cost, with no obligation.

Book the Call

Representative Cases

Six matters, one discipline

Anonymised summaries of recent engagements, presented as the issues were approached: understand the technology, attack the evidence, defend the client.

Patent · Infringement Defence

Hubei Electrical Appliance Manufacturer — Multi-Million RMB Defence

Issue: The plaintiff alleged that the client's manufacturing equipment infringed a patent that had already prevailed in an earlier case. Prior strategy had failed; exposure was in the millions of RMB.

Approach: A forensic re-reading of the control chip's algorithm logic — a detail both sides and the court had overlooked — rebuilt the technical record, enabling combined legitimate-source and non-infringement defences.

Result: Loss exposure eliminated for the client.

Patent · Invalidation

Zhangjiagang Elevator Decoration Co. — Core Patent Revived

Issue: CNIPA had declared the client's core elevator patent wholly invalid. The patented solution looked deceptively simple — two edges meeting at an angle — making the adverse ruling hard to attack.

Approach: Mechanical analysis of the elevator system and the patented component, then a detailed rebuttal of why each piece of evidence relied upon in the invalidation decision did not support the finding.

Result: The invalidation was reversed. The client's core commercial interest was restored.

Patent · Infringement Defence

Liaoning Petrochemical Machinery & Instrumentation Co.

Issue: The client, a defendant in a patent infringement suit, faced claims over industrial instrumentation.

Approach: Close analysis of the plaintiff's evidence exposed fundamental defects in its proof. A prior-art and non-infringement defence was assembled and put before the court.

Result: The plaintiff withdrew the suit.

Patent · Utility Model

Guizhou Mechanical Technology Co. — Invalidating the Asserted Patent

Issue: A utility model patent was asserted against the client's product line, threatening its core offering.

Approach: Detailed feature-by-feature comparison for the non-infringement defence, paired with a parallel invalidation petition against the asserted patent.

Result: The plaintiff lost the rights basis for its claim.

Trademark · Administrative

Jiangsu Biotech Co. — Registration Refusal Reversed

Issue: The client's trademark application had been refused registration by CNIPA.

Approach: A structured distinctiveness argument with supporting evidence, presented before the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board.

Result: Registration was obtained.

Trade Secret · Advisory

Beijing Research Institute — Trade Secret Management Programme

Issue: A research institute needed a defensible trade secret governance framework to protect its core know-how.

Approach: Audited existing processes; designed classification, access-control, confidentiality and incident-response protocols; integrated the framework with HR and IT workflows.

Result: The framework was adopted institution-wide.

Case details are anonymised to protect client confidentiality. Full references are available on request and under appropriate privilege.

Your matter may be the next case study.

Confidential by default. Let's talk about what is happening in your market.

Start the Conversation

Service Process

Five steps from first email to enforcement

Overseas clients hesitate at the first step — not knowing what they can safely share, with whom, or what it will cost. This page removes that friction.

01

Confidential Intake

A 30-minute call, in English, under privilege. We listen first; we do not ask you to sign anything before we understand the problem.

02

Strategy Memo

A written, English-language memorandum: the legal landscape, realistic outcomes, forum options, timeline and fee envelope.

03

Engagement & Scope

A clear engagement letter with defined deliverables, fixed milestones and a transparent fee arrangement. No surprise invoices.

04

Execution

Filings, evidence preservation, hearings, negotiations — managed in Chinese, reported to you in English on a defined cadence.

05

Closure & Review

A post-matter review. Follow-on enforcement or annual IP audits continue only if you wish.

What To Expect

Working with us, week by week

In the first week

  • Confidential call within 3 business days of your enquiry
  • Initial assessment of the position, in plain English
  • Clear guidance on what to share in writing, and how
  • Honest view on whether the matter is worth pursuing

Throughout the engagement

  • Written strategy memo before any commitment
  • Status updates in English on the agreed cadence
  • Direct, fast answers — you never wait a week for a yes or no
  • Itemised fees: no surprise invoices, no hidden disbursements

The first step costs 30 minutes.

No documents required. No obligation. Just a clear read on your position.

Book Step One

Insights

Scholarship meets courtroom practice

Selected publications and lectures on intellectual property law — the research behind the practice.

Publications

Selected Articles

  • Trade Secret Law

    The Head-Knowledge Defence in Trade Secret Protection

    An examination of the head-knowledge defence — the line between an employee's residual skill and an employer's protectable trade secret — grounded in comparative analysis of US and Chinese practice. Also the subject of the author's master's thesis.

  • Patent Law · Comparative

    Determination of Inventiveness in US Patent Law

    An analysis of the non-obviousness standard under US patent law and the lessons its structured inquiry offers for Chinese practice.

  • Trade Secret Law

    Whether Trade Secrets Are "Readily Obtainable"

    On the "readily obtainable" standard in trade secret misappropriation analysis — where the line falls, and why it matters for defendants and plaintiffs alike.

Lectures

Teaching & Speaking

  • Lecture

    The History and Current Status of Trade Secret Protection

    From the first codifications to the current statutory regime — how trade secret law evolved in China and where it stands today.

  • Lecture

    Evolution of Standards for Trade Secret Infringement Determination

    How Chinese courts and tribunals have refined the test for misappropriation, and what the shifting standards mean for litigants.

  • Industry Training

    Technical Training, Huawei Shanghai R&D Centre & Russia Programmes

    Before the bar: lectured on 3GPP protocols and Huawei core-network solutions at the Shanghai R&D Centre and for Huawei's Russian training programmes.

"The published record is the practice made visible. These pieces document the questions that drive the client work — and the answers that come back from the courtroom." — On the relationship between scholarship and practice

Bring a question your own lawyers cannot answer.

The research is public. The counsel is private.

Ask the Question

Contact

Start with a confidential conversation

Tell us what is happening in your market. Within three business days, we will give you an honest read on your position — in English, under privilege.

Thank you — your message has been received.
We will respond within three business days. For urgent matters, please use the phone or email below.

Your information is treated as confidential and is never shared. This form does not create an attorney–client relationship; that begins with a written engagement.

Direct Contact

Phone / WhatsApp / WeChat
+86 188 1086 1822
EMAIL
zhaofeng.wang@hengdulaw.com
Office
Beijing Hengdu Law Firm
50th Floor, Tower B, China World Trade Center, No. 1 Jianguomenwai Avenue, Chaoyang District, Beijing, People's Republic of China
Working Languages
English · 中文 (Mandarin)
Consultation Hours
Monday – Friday, 09:00 – 18:00 (GMT+8)
Video calls by arrangement across time zones
Prefer to be reached by email?
Complete the form and we will respond within three business days. For urgent enforcement windows, call or message via WeChat — the fastest route.