Lifang & Partners’ Guangzhou office has merged with local IP specialist firm Liu and Partners. Roy Liu, managing partner of the six-lawyer firm, will head Lifang’s newly expanded Guangzhou office.
Lifang, a Beijing-based firm primarily focusing on IP practice, first established its Guangzhou presence in December 2007 with the signing of the city’s leading IP practitioner Deng Yao, previously a partner of Guangzhou Hai Ji Ming and the former deputy-director of the science and technology intellectual property centre of Guangdong province.
The latest expansion of its Guangzhou capabilities is the firm’s response to the continuous surge in demand for IP legal services in the Pearl River Delta region. The region has been one of the country’s leading provinces by the total number of patent and trademark filings since 2006.
In October last year, Lifang also expanded its IP practice in its head office by recruiting a 30-member IP team, including five partners. Part of the team joined Lifang from DeHeng’s IP division.
Guangzhou-based Liu and Partners, established in 1994 enjoyed mandates from major clients like Apple, Microsoft, Midea and Nike. The firm is one of the leading IP firms in Southern China.
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