In early April 2024, Lifang & Partners is pleased to announce the 2024 promotion of five new partners, YANG Jian, WU Xuting, WU Runzhi, DENG Xiaorong, and JI Heng. These new partners, with years of experience and outstanding skills, committed to providing clients with high-quality and efficient legal services, are based in Beijing and Shanghai offices, covering practice areas like IP and antitrust/competition. 

We congratulate them and firmly believe these talents create a brilliant future with Lifang & Partners.

Dr. YANG Jian is specialized in the fields of biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, especially in tumor biology and immunology, and has rich experience in patent search, patent drafting, patent stability analysis and FTO analysis. Dr. Yang once worked in a leading law firm. Before that, she had been involved in the research of novel tumor markers and anti-tumor vascular drug, having several articles published in the relevant core international academic journals. Dr. YANG has drafted hundreds of Chinese and PCT applications in the fields of biopharmaceuticals, chemistry and chemical engineering. Dr. Yang is familiar with the patent practice in the United States, Europe, Japan, Korea, Australia and other countries, and has been responsible for patent prosecution in about 20 countries or regions.

Ms. WU Xuting specializes in antitrust and competition law. Ms. Wu has a background in both English and law. Since she practiced in antitrust in 2013, she has assisted a number of large multinational and domestic enterprises and in coping with antitrust matters. Ms. Wu has taken lead in many merger filings of various industries including automotive, chemical, energy, finance, semiconductor and shipping; represented clients to take part in antitrust investigations and got mitigation of punishment; provided advice to clients on antitrust compliance matters and assisted clients to establish the China-specific antitrust compliance system, etc. Besides, Ms. WU Xuting has rich experience in handling SEPs-related antitrust issues: she has assisted in coping with the FRAND issues in a series of SEPs-related litigations between Huawei and Samsung; assisted licensor/licensee in SEP licensing negotiations; provided legal advice to licensor/licensee for coping with antitrust/royalty rate litigations.

Dr. WU Runzhi has research background and 9 years of IP practice experience. She is able to quickly and accurately understand technical solutions and make legal analysis, and she can independently provide legal service regarding patent drafting, legal consultation, patent infringement dispute and patent invalidation. Dr. WU Runzhi is specialized in chemical industry, medicinal chemistry, medical equipment, and she has advised multiple transnational corporations (e.g., Umicore, Merck, 3M, Schott, Exxon Mobile, Google) on patent filing, patent analysis, patent invalidation and patent litigation.

Mr. DENG Xiaorong specializes in patent law and other intellectual property law, representing patent infringement disputes, patent administrative handling disputes, patent invalidation disputes, patent invalidation administrative litigation disputes, commercial secret infringement disputes and other cases.In addition, he can also provide clients with patent invalidation analysis, patent infringement analysis and other legal services. The clients he has served include Samsung Electronics Co.,Ltd., Sichuan Xuhong Optoelectronic Technology Co.,LTD., Beijing Mobike Technology Co.,LTD., Toksan Co.,LTD., Rhodia Chemical Co.,France, Beijing Qihoo Technology Co.,LTD., China Enfei Engineering Technology Co.,LTD., China Enfei Engineering Technology Co., LTD.,etc.

Immediately before joining Lifang & Partners, Mr JI Heng worked in the Machinery Patent Examination Department of CNIPA. Mr Ji has examined around 1400 patents, re-examined many, worked with PCT applications, evaluated utility models and did many other things. Mr JI Heng has experience in patent analysis. During his time at CNIPA, he led or was involved in over 40 patent analysis projects, including patent mapping, patent trend analyses, freedom to operate analyses, IP review, patent mining, portfolio management, and patent value appraisals. Mr Ji’s service clients including Gree, COMAC, AECC CAE, Mobike, Alpha Animation, Zhongding Group, Himin Group and others.