As part of its preparations for the official merger with Hogan & Hartson in May, Lovells has appointed IP specialist Clifford Borg-Marks as of counsel in its current 30-lawyer Greater China IP team in its Beijing office.

Considered something of a pioneer in the IP field here, Borg-Marks handled the country’s first copyright case for Sega Enterprises of Japan immediately after the introduction of the PRC Copyright Law. He also conducted the first trade dress case in Shanghai for Chupa Chups SA of Spain when the Unfair Competition Law came into force.

The appointment comes almost concurrently to Lovells’ recent 21-partner promotion. The new partnerships will come into effect on the day that Hogan Lovells officially launches. After these new appointments, Hogan Lovells will have more than 800 partners in offices across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the US.

New partners for Greater China include Geoffrey Lin, who joined Lovells Shanghai in 2005 and was promoted to consultant in 2008. He will be based in the Shanghai office and will focus on IP work. James Fong, Kelly Naphtali, Deanna Wong and Christopher Dobby will begin their partnerships in Hong Kong.

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 Hogan Lovells’ new partners in Asia

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