Practice areas

Intellectual property; Litigation and arbitration; General corporate law

Introduction

Frank Liu is partner at Tian Tai. Before joining the firm, Liu held a similar position at Chang Tsi & Partners, where he was head of the Shanghai office and the dispute resolution department. He also worked as a visiting lawyer at the London and Hong Kong offices of Linklaters from 2007 to 2008.

Liu is skilled in handling challenging all types of litigation matters, especially those related to intellectual property. He has handled more than 100 civil lawsuits and is regularly praised for his excellent trial skills. Before going into private practice, he was a court judge for five years. Many leading Chinese and international corporations turn to Liu for advice and counsel on trademark, patent, domain name, copyright, unfair competition and licensing matters. Although obtaining substantial compensation for intellectual property infringement is challenging in China, Liu has helped win over US$1 million in both trademark and patent infringement cases.

During his distinguished career, Liu has won several high-profile cases. In the trademark infringement and unfair competition case, which China Business Law Journal recognized as IP deal of the year in 2013, he represented a Fortune 500 company against local infringers. The case lasted for five years in a complex trial procedure, from the intermediate court to the retrial at the Supreme Court, before receiving a favourable judgment. He represented a beverage company in bottle-design utility model infringement litigation, which was successfully settled when the defendants agreed to pay US$1.5 million in compensation. He helped to secure well-known trademark recognition in administrative litigation against the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (TRAB). Liu acted as local counsel for a US brand to secure a judgment from the Chinese court to confirm and enforce a US$1.7 million arbitration award.

Due to clients’ high recognition of the value of his work, Liu was recognized as a leading lawyer for dispute resolution, litigation and IP in China by Asialaw Leading Lawyers in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. He also won China Business Law Journal’s “China’s Top100 Lawyers” awards in 2016 and 2017, while also winning one of the world’s leading trademark lawyers honours from Who’s Who Legal in 2017 and 2018. He was shortlisted as a “Rising Star” for IP in 2014 and selected as a leading lawyer for IP by China Law & Practice in 2014. His professional competence has also won recognition from Legal 500 Asia Pacific, Chambers Asia Pacific, World Trademark Review and Global Law Experts.

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