Jason Yao

Jason Yao is a Partner at Wanhuida Intellectual Property and a member of the firm’s Management Committee. He is also the managing partner of the firm’s Shenzhen Office and Hong Kong Office. Mr. Yao's practice covers a wide range of intellectual property matters, including litigations on disputes over trademarks, patents, copyrights and trade secrets, investigation and enforcement against trademark counterfeiting, patent infringement and piracy through administrative and criminal actions, licensing, transferring and acquiring of trademarks, patents and copyrighted works; handling compliance programs and government investigations on unfair competition and antitrust matters; advising on corporate governance, government relation, and crisis management.

Mr. Yao has been highly regarded by clients for his profound knowledge of intellectual property issues, his sense of urgency and responsibility, and his comprehensive approach in dealing with complex legal issues.

Mr. Yao has a unique combination of in-house and outside counsel experience in managing intellectual property portfolios and corporate legal matters for both multinational and Chinese companies. Mr. Yao joined Proctor & Gamble Company as an in-house legal counsel after graduating from law school in 1996. He led the brand protection team in China and handled more than a thousand cases in 7 years, some of which were the very first on a regional level. After finishing his advanced education in intellectual property law at Boston University School of Law, Mr. Yao joined Gillette Company as the general counsel for the Greater China region, where he oversaw the most complicated investigation and enforcement against a counterfeit syndicate and worked closely with the management team in creatively consolidating the joint ventures. After the merge of Gillette and Procter & Gamble Company, Mr. Yao joined Acushnet Company, the world’s largest golf product manufacturer, where he served as the leading counsel for both intellectual property and general legal matters in the Asia/Pacific region. He successfully coordinated the major US golf manufacturers and put together a comprehensive program for fighting cooperatively and collectively against counterfeit and pirated products in the region and achieved significant results.

Mr. Yao served in the Quality Brands Protection Committee (“QBPC”) of China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment as chair for various committees and the QBPC Vice Chairman for over 10 years, working with the legislature, the judiciary and government enforcement agencies for the improvement of the legislation and enforcement concerning intellectual property rights protection in China.

In his capacity as an arbitrator at the Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration, Mr. Yao arbitrates cases on IP disputes and commercial contract disputes on a frequent basis. He is also an expert member at the WIPO Arbitration & Mediation Center. Mr. Yao is currently a council member of Beijing Justra IP Center, a leading IP think tank in China. Mr. Yao has been retained by the AmCham South China as a Special Advisor to Chairman for Legal & IP Policy Watch for the year of 2022 and 2023. He also serves on the Board of Directors of INTA Foundation, a charitable organization working to expand educational and professional development opportunities in IP for diverse, under-represented populations around the world.

INTA

ACLA

IACC

QBPC

Mr. Yao is a prolific writer. A list of his most recent publications include:

 Supreme Court awards New Balance Rmb30 million in damages in dispute with infringer (WTR, Co-author)

 Navigating China’s social media landscape: issues and best practices for brand protection (WTR)

 Developing a multiplatform approach to counterfeiting (WTR)

 Wenzhou court awards Siemens Rmb1 million in civil suit (IAM, Co-author)

 Uprooting the entire counterfeiting network by chasing online sellers: case study of recent success by US golf anti-counterfeiting group (WTR)

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