Partner, Member of Management Committee
Wanhuida Intellectual Property
Beijing
China
+86 10 6892 1000
Distinguished Practitioner
Chinese
English & French
Intellectual property
Dr Huang holds a J.D. on Trademark Law from the China Academy of Social Sciences and another from the University of Strasbourg in France.
Dr Huang is a multi-faceted intellectual property counsel with stellar academic credentials on China’s trademark legislation and practice, who has been vigorously representing clients’ interests in a wide variety of intellectual property matters, some of which have become landmark cases.
Since joining private practice in 2002, Dr Huang has been fighting for the clients in their most intricate matters before the nation’s IP authorities, protecting and defending client’s interests and helping advancing China’s legal fronts.
Dr Huang is a prolific writer. He authors or co-authors a dozen publications, including “Trademark & Unfair Competition Cases in China”, Trademark Section of “Intellectual Property in European Union” (1st & 2nd Edition), Trademark Chapter of the “Study on Global Intellectual Property Developments” (2019 & 2020 Edition), “L’IMPACT DE L’USAGE SUR L’ÉTENDUE DE LA PROTECTION DES MARQUES: ÉTUDE DE DROIT COMPARÉ CHINE – UNION EUROPÉENNE” (2010-2018), “Zheng Chengsi IP Anthology - Trademark & Unfair Competition”, “Trademark Law” (1st, 2nd & 3rd edition) and the “Trademark Laws of Twelve Nations”. He also translates the Legislative Part of the “Intellectual Property Code of France” (1st & 2nd edition).
On account of his expertise in the Trademark Law, Dr Huang has been vigorously involved in the initial drafting and subsequent amendments to China’s major trademark-related laws, regulations, judicial interpretations, as well as regulatory documents.
Dr Huang has been rated as an Outstanding Individual by WTR fourteen years in a row and has been included in Managing IP’s List of IP STARS in China since 2015. He has been identified as one of the WTR Global Leaders (Private Practice) since 2020. He has been selected as a Recommended Lawyer by The Legal 500 since 2015, a Distinguished Practitioner by asialaw since 2016 and a Leading Individual by Chambers & Partners since 2017.
Dr Huang has been instrumental in securing favourable results for the firm’s clients in quite a few high-calibre cases, some of which has been selected by the China Supreme People’s Court (SPC) for its legal significance:
SPC Top 10 Cases (2023): Representing Xiaomi in winning the unfair competition suit against the infringers that pre-emptively registered its voice activation command prompt, brazenly sent cease and desist letter to Xiaomi and sold infringing products. The court found unfair competition, ordered cessation and awarded Xiaomi damages of RMB 1.2 million.
Beijing High Court Top 10 Trademark Cases (2022): Representing the client in successfully revoking the registration of “千页豆腐” (thousand-layer tofu in Chinese) trademark registered by a Chinese food manufacturer in class 29 in 2013. The case went through revocation proceeding, two instances of administrative court proceeding and ended with the affirmation of the Beijing High Court that the trademark has degenerated into a generic name of tofu and tofu varieties when the revocation application was filed. The decision is of empirical significance for clarifying the parameters in assessing the genericide of registered trademarks.
SPC Annual 50 Exemplary Cases (2021): Representing a major player in wedding photograph shooting business in reversing unfavourable CNIPA and court decision invalidating its registered trademark “米兰” (Chinese transliteration of “Milan”) in class 41. The court of appeal found that the trademark had acquired secondary meaning through extensive use and is unlikely to cause confusion, thus ruled to maintain the registration.
Top 10 IP Cases of Shanghai Courts (2021): Representing Fendi in prevailing in the appeal and re-adjudication of a trademark infringement and unfair competition proceeding against an unaffiliated retailer selling grey market Fendi goods and using Fendi trademarks in business operation and on the signage. The re-adjudication decision rejecting the fair use defence is expected to help set a precedent as to how business should be promoted in the context of parallel imports.
SPC Annual 50 Exemplary Cases (2019): Representing United Family Healthcare (UFH) in filing a trademark infringement and unfair competition suit against a copycat, obtaining favourable decisions from the first and second instance courts, which affirmed infringement for defendant’s using of UFH’s Chinese word mark “和睦家” and ordered damages of RMB 300,000. UFH filed for retrial, requesting SPC’s affirmation on trademark infringement and unfair competition for defendant’s using of copycat device mark, seeking court mandated name change of the defendant and damages of RMB 3 million. The SPC upheld all plaintiff’s claims.
SPC Top 10 Cases (2017): Representing the Commercial Press in bringing a trademark infringement and unfair competition action against an infringer that published copycats of the client's best-selling dictionary, obtained a favourable court decision, the recognition of the well-known status of the client's unregistered trademark, an injunction and damages of RMB 3 million.
SPC Annual 50 Exemplary Cases (2017): Representing a major Keemun tea maker in invalidating the registration of Keemun Black Tea certification trademark, which erroneously designated Qimen County as the exclusive growing region of Keemun Black tea. The court of second instance and the re-adjudication court (SPC) found the registrant breached the good faith principle and upheld the invalidation decision.
SPC Gazette Case (2017): Representing China Spider King Group in the opposition review administrative proceeding, obtained favourable court decisions and the Supreme Court’s affirmation that the goodwill built up by a market player may be shifted among or extended to a variety of carriers that may serve as the source identifier of its goods or services, but there is no alternative form of trademark extension other than trademark renewal.
