Bob Zhang

张照龙

Partner

Bob Zhang

Bob Zhang has over ten years of experience in the field of intellectual property and currently serves as the director of Hongfu (Guangzhou) Law Firm.

Mr. Zhang’s expertise encompasses a wide range of legal services in intellectual property, including intellectual property layout, strategy, corporate counseling, licensing, litigation, and rights protection. He has extensive experience in acquiring intellectual property rights and combating infringement. Mr. Zhang excels in providing clients with comprehensive and professional advice and strategies, particularly in handling complex and difficult litigation cases across various fields of intellectual property, helping clients effectively meet complex legal challenges.

In the field of intellectual property licensing, Mr. Zhang offers traditional legal services such as drafting and amending licensing contracts, as well as multi-dimensional services like dispute resolution and compliance auditing related to licensing agreements. His goal is to help clients maximize the value of their intellectual property rights. Additionally, Mr. Zhang is involved in emerging areas such as film and entertainment. Holding an acting agent’s qualification certificate, he continues to provide contract drafting, review, and daily legal consulting services to artist studios.

During his practice, Mr. Zhang has been responsible for numerous intellectual property litigation cases with significant social and industry impact. His professional performance has garnered high praise from clients and wide recognition from peers. Notably, some of his cases have been selected as typical cases of the year by domestic courts and industry organizations. These include cases on the judicial protection of unregistered well-known trademarks and the determination of the nature of non-manually filmed video images, which have had a board influence on the industry.

Mr. Zhang serves a diverse group of clients across various industries, including consumer goods, cosmetics, internet, high-tech, food and beverage, catering, entertainment, and education. His notable clients include P&G, Amazon, Diageo, TWE Group, Amore Pacific, Bilibili, Oriental Pearl Group, WHM Group, Moonton, and Florasis.

EXPERIENCE

2022 – Current: Partner, HongFangLaw

2015 – 2022: Associate, Hong Fang Law

2015: IP Consultant, HFG Intellectual Property Consulting Firm

EDUCATION

2012 – 2015: Master Degree in IP Law, East China University of Political Science and Law

2007 – 2011: Bachelor Degree in IP Law, East China University of Political Science and Law

2013: P.R.C. Bar

Representative Cases

  1. Represented SOUTHCORP BRANDS PTY LIMITED, a subsidiary of TWE Group in the trademark infringement case, under which the client’s “奔富” trademark has been recognized as an unregistered well-known trademark. The court has ruled the liquate damage with an amount of RMB 1.1 million against the trademark infringer. This case is rewarded as “Top 50 IP Cases by the Supreme People’s Court in 2020”, “Top 10 IP Cases by Jiangsu High People’s Court in 2020”, “Top 10 Cases by Nanjing Court in 2020”, “TOP 10 IP Cases by Nanjing Court in 2019” and “Top 10 Cases in IP protection and The model cases Bridging Administrative and Judicial IP enforcement by QBPC in 2019-2020”;
  1. Represented an artist studio to file trademark opposition against the trademark squatting of the name of the client’s well-known publication “猫力乱步”, which has been regarded as one of the typical trademark prosecution cases in 2018;
  1. Represented the author of a well-known online video to claim copyright infringement against Youku, Toodou, and Momo, for which the second instance court has ruled a decision in favor of the client. This case is rewarded as Top 10 Cultural and Entertainment Law Events in China 2020;
  1. Represented Diageo to handle trademark infringement cases and non-use cancellation appeal of its three-dimensional mark;
  1. Represented Diageo to handle trademark invalidation administrative case, in which the client’s “JohnnieWalker” trademark has been recognized as a well-known trademark;
  1. Assisted Amore Pacific in handling trademark dispute cases, under which the client’s “爱丽” has been recognized as the distinctive name of a well-known product;
  1. Advised Shanghai Data Exchange Corp. in the trademark refusal appeal and assisted the client in acquiring trademark registrations in certain key classes;
  1. Represented Amazon in copyright infringement cases and enforcement cases filed by professional extortioners for fraud-fighting;
  2. Representing Bilibili to take action against the black market such as game account trading and game cheating through litigation and platform complaints.

Articles Published

  1. The protection of graphical user interface (GUI) design in China. Eric Su, Bob Zhang
  2. Protecting brands online in the wake of covid-19 and the surge in tech developments. Bob Zhang
  3. Challenges in judicial practice for copyright protection in China. Bob Zhang, Kevin Xu, Kayla Sun