Sharon Qiao

Sharon has been practicing in the IP field for over twenty years so far. Sharon has a rich experience in IP strategy, IP litigation and enforcement. She has led hundreds of IP cases, many of which have been selected as noteworthy cases of the year by courts at all levels, including the Supreme People’s Court for their unprecedented nature. Sharon has also won a variety of professional awards.

Sharon studied at Southwest University of Political Science & Law to obtain a bachelor’s degree of Law. She then studied at Renmin University of China to obtain a postgraduate degree in civil law. She went to Germany and was awarded a scholarship at the Max-Planck Institute, studying there as a Fellow for Foreign and International Patent, Copyright and Competition Law. Sharon obtained her Ph.D. degree in IP law at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. Before becoming a practicing lawyer, she used to work as a lecturer at university. She is the author of Comparison of the Chinese Unfair Competition Law with German Law, which has been published in a variety of formats, both domestically and abroad.

Sharon is a member of numerous law associations in China and abroad, and acts as a member of the council of China Intellectual Property Law (IPLaw). She has participated in the formulation and revision of related laws of China regarding intellectual property, with much of her advice and opinions being adopted by the legislative and judicial authorities.

Sharon has comprehensive expertise in IP litigation and enforcement, particularly in the domain of patents, trademarks, copyright and unfair competition. Acting as the leader of Lusheng, she provides a full range of IP services to many well-known international and domestic companies.

Many of her cases have been selected by the Supreme People’s Court and other courts for their unprecedented nature and won varieties of professional awards.

Career Highlights

• Led attorney representing u-blox in a civil litigation case against the copyright infringement. Despite defendant refusing to submit its source code to the court to conduct a direct comparison, the court concluded that there was no other explanation than that copying had taken place and granted high compensation of RMB 10 million for u-blox
• Led attorney representing Land Rover in both second instance trial and SPC retrial. In 2019, the other party’s retrial application was dismissed by the SPC. The second instance case was awarded as 50 Typical Cases of Judicial Protection of Intellectual Property by Courts across China in year 2016, in which succeeded in overturning the unfavorable judgment of the first instance.
• Led attorney representing Hansgrohe regarding design patent infringement in both second instance trial and SPC retrial. The SPC rejected the other party’s retrial application and maintained the second instance decision. The court granted relatively high compensation for design infringement cases.
• Led attorney representing SGG Lisco LLC regarding trademark dispute in SPC retrial. The case has been successfully retried by SPC, and SPC overturned both first and second instance court decision. SPC supported both similarity and well-known trademark claim.
• Led attorney representing Andis regarding trademark dispute of “Andis” in SPC retrial. This case was successfully retried by the SPC, and the SPC overturned both second instance and first instance decision. This case was listed as SPC Top Typical Administrivia Cases of 2018.
• Led attorney representing RAFFLES for retrial defense. The other side’s retrial application was dismissed by SPC. The second instance judgment which is in client’s favor was maintained.
• Led attorney representing Worldwide Brands in SPC retrial proceeding defending the invalidation of the trademark “camel active”. Both first and second instance decision was overturned. The client’s house mark was maintained. This case was listed as Typical IP cases of 2017 by China IP magazine.
• Led attorney representing ThyssenKrupp in the SPC retrial proceeding defending invention patent infringement. The second instance decision was overturned. This case was listed as the No.1 case of 50 Typical Cases of Judicial Protection of Intellectual Property by Courts across China in year 2016.
• Led attorney representing 3M company in a high-profile employee-inventor remuneration case in China, having successfully convinced the SPC to uphold the previous judgement. The case has a significant impact on the rule/policy of employee invention in China in the long term.
• Led attorney representing Crocs in litigation against passing off on trade name and product designs, via anti-unfair competition law. This case was awarded as Top 50 IP cases of China 2015 by SPC and Top 10 IP cases of Shanghai 2015.
• Led attorney representing Mars in “WHISKAS” case against a Chinese Infringement company. This case was awarded as China Top IP Cases in 2012 by China IP magazine, which was recommended by Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court.
• Led attorney in trademark/unfair competition case for Nivea against a Chinese infringer, which was won the 2009 - 2010 China IPR Best Practices Award of QBPC.
• Led attorney in ground-breaking online copyright litigation case in the international recording industry against Yahoo! China. This case was recognized as the No. 1 IP Case in China in 2007 by the Beijing Higher People's Court.
• Led attorney in Peter Rabbit case, acting for FREDERICK WARNE&CO．LTD, which was recognized by SIPO as the most influential case of 2004.