Xiang Zhang

Michael focuses his practice on patent, trade secret and other intellectual property related litigations, including: patent invalidation, patent invalidation administrative litigation, patent infringement litigation, patent ownership dispute litigation, trade secret misappropriation litigation, and pre-litigation evaluation and risk prevention.

He represents clients from multinational corporations to domestic start-ups, participating in hundreds of litigations, most of which are influential and cutting edge cases in areas of standard essential patent (SEP), patent disputes overlapped with IPO, software infringement and so on. Quite a few of the cases represented by Michael have been selected as the annual national typical intellectual property cases by the Supreme People's Court (SPC), the national outstanding foreign-related cases by the All China Lawyers Association, the annual typical intellectual property cases by the Higher People's Court, and the annual typical cases of patent invalidation by the China Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA).

- Typical SEP infringement cases between two giant mobile phone companies Huawei and Samsung (in 2016-2019): Representing Samsung, Michael lead a team working on 40+ telecommunication standard essential patent (SEP) infringement cases and 40+ corresponding patent invalidation cases in parallel, which contribute to a settlement between the two parties, reaching a global cross license agreement. These cases are greatly influential on the telecommunication field, guiding future’s negotiations between telecommunication SEP licensors and licensees in a legitimate and effective manner. Some of the cases were listed as one of top 50 typical national intellectual property judicial cases in China in 2019 by the Supreme People's Court, one of top 10 typical intellectual property judicial cases in Beijing in 2019 by the Beijing Higher People's Court, one of top 10 typical intellectual property judicial cases in Guangdong Province in 2019 by the Guangdong Higher People's Court, one of top 10 typical intellectual property judicial cases in Shenzhen in 2019 by the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court, one of top 10 typical innovative intellectual property judicial cases in Guangzhou by the Guangzhou IP Court, one of top 10 typical intellectual property judicial cases in Fujian Province in 2018 by the Fujian Higher People's Court, and one of top 10 typical national patent invalidation cases in 2018 by CNIPA.

- Typical case of trade secret misappropriation (in 2020-2022): Michael represents a large environmental field company against a listed company and a senior executive for trade secret misappropriation, wherein a compensation of nearly 100 million RMB was judged by the court in the first instance. This case of first instance was selected as the typical IP judicial case of Nanjing court in the years of 2017-2021, which has great guidance on how to judge the trade secret misappropriation for the common illegal situation that employees in the previous company were intentionally offered a new job to form another R&D team in the new company.

- Typical IP litigations against an IPO company of Science and Technology Innovation Board (in 2020-2022): Representing a high-tech company Goer Co., Ltd. against Suzhou Minxin Microelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. during its period of launching IPO, Michael lead his team to work on filing a series of actions before the courts, including disputes on patent ownership, patent invalidation, patent infringement and unfair competition. The related cases were selected by the media as one of the top 10 hot cases in IPO area in 2020, which had great significance in the IP risk management area which may be determinative on the success/failure for a high-tech company to be launched in Science and Technology Innovation Board.

As a patent attorney and attorney-at-law representing clients in mechatronics, mechanical automation control, automotive new energy, telecommunication technology, MEMS chips technology, Michael Xiang ZHANG helps companies identify, develop and implement strategies for protecting rights to their technology to enable them to achieve their business goals.

Michael joined Liu, Shen & Associates in 2007. Before that he held a position as a product manager in a multinational company. Michael is active and frequently gives speeches at meetings and seminars organized by various IP platforms for domestic enterprises and foreign clients. He was appointed as the counsel of the government in 2020. Michael also has co-published a book “Typical FRAND Litigation Cases”.