Ping Gu

Ping Gu focuses her practice on complicated patent, trade secret, trademark, copyright litigations and licensing matters in China. She handles the most sophisticated and cutting-edge IP cases involving software, semiconductor, wireless communication, and chemistry areas representing multinational companies. Her IP litigation cases received many accolades including: Deals of the Year 2019 and Deals of the Year 2020 by China Business Law Journal; Exemplary Case by the Supreme Court of China (2019); Beijing IP Court Top 10 cases (2016); Patent Trial and Reexamination Board Top 10 cases (2016). She is a Chamber Asia Pacific Band II IP Lawyer. She practiced in New York for 8 years at Morgan & Finnegan and Milbank Tweed previously and she is licensed in New York and before the USPTO. 

• Case 1: Global Innovation Aggregators (“GIA”), a US NPE has filed many IP disputes in China to extort money out of multinational companies. Ping has been representing Netgear to fight against the extortions with a consistent string of success. In 2019, we forced GIA to withdraw 3 out of the 4 infringement cases filed by GIA before the local IP Offices and knocked out the last patent entirely which had survived 2 previous invalidations filed by other companies in previous cases. After our 2019 total success, GIA filed 12 patent infringement lawsuits against Netgear in different courts by its patent licensees based on 7 patents obtained from Huawei. Facing the simultaneous large-scale offensive litigations in different courts, Ping and her team filed invalidation cases against all the patents and fought back forcefully. Till date, Ping successfully forced the NPE to withdraw 5 infringement cases, invalidated one of the patents, and one case has been terminated by the court. The string of success has maintained Netgear’s continued success. The magnitude of the cases, in particular the number of patents and accused products involved, is unseen in China in NPE litigations. Trolls are getting relentlessly aggressive in China because if infringement is found, injunction will almost certainly be issued which is a pressure point for settlement. The Netgear cases are exemplary to practicing entities on how to safeguard legal rights and not fall victim to trolls.
• Case 2: Represented JCET Group Co., Ltd (JCET) to initiate a series action against Forehope, including invalidation procedures against 10 patents of Forehope, 4 patent ownership cases and 2 trade secret misappropriation actions against Forehope. JCET is the world's leading integrated circuit encapsulating and technical service provider, and Forehope is mainly engaged in the encapsulation and integrated circuits testing, whose business is basically the same as that of JCET. This batch of cases is the series of intellectual property protection actions initiated by JCET against Forehope, involving a number of Forehope’s core technologies. JECT is the world third largest semiconductor encapsulating company and is the industry leader in China. As China strive to develop semiconductor technology, maintaining healthy competition among the industry is vital. As a leader in the industry, JCET’s role is not only to lead but also to maintain healthy competition. Ping and her team provide an overall strategy to help JCET enforce its intellectual property rights and protect technology achievements as a leading enterprise in the field of semiconductor encapsulation, which is also conducive to maintaining the healthy and sound development of the domestic semiconductor industry. For invalidation cases, two of the patents has been declared invalid. This series of cases were settled recently in favor of our client.
• Case 3: We successfully represented a well-known Sichuan pharmaceutical company in a criminal case involving trade secrets misappropriation of our client’s pharmaceutical equipment and processes. The judge of the first instance decided in favour of our client on all accounts and ruled that all the defendants are guilty of infringing trade secrets. The defendants appealed the case and the second instance case is pending. Sichuan Neo-Green Pharmaceutical Technology Development Co., Ltd is a leading pharmaceutical company in China, integrating the cultivation, processing, scientific research, manufacturing and sale of medicinal materials. The case involved complex pharma equipment technologies, and the limited time for preparation brings more uncontrollable factors and difficulties for the team to deal with this case. Facing the complex background of this case, the team provided professional and efficient legal services, which won the case for our client.
• Case 4: Shanghai You Hui Investment Consultancy Co., Ltd filed a patent infringement administrative complaint against Align’s world-famous orthodontics product Invisalign before Beijing Intellectual Property Office. We filed an invalidation with the patent office (CNIPA) on behalf of Align. On 01/12/2023, the CNIPA invalidated the entire patent. With the invalidation of the patent by CNIPA, the Beijing IP Bureau dismissed the infringement case. The case filed by Youhui against Align came to a satisfactory close to our client. Align is a global medical device company with industry-leading innovative products, aiming to help dental professionals achieve the clinical results they expect and deliver effective, cutting-edge dental options to their patients. The plaintiff only has one patent in its portfolio and seemly acts like a troll. In 2022, the orthodontics market has annual sales of $1.5 trillion in China. Align is one of the largest players. This case involves high stakes in the orthodontics industry.
• Case 5: The client is a world leading chemical company providing compound widely used in wireless communication industry. We represented the client to file a patent infringement case before the Shijiazhuang Intermediate Court against its competitor. The case is on-going. The technology involved relates to chemical process in the production of certain compound to be used in 4G and 5G base stations. It is widely used in China and is critical to stable communication networks and is vital to national economy. The infringer copied our client’s patented process but its compound is not stable and will affect the function. The purpose for the case is to eliminate copycat and provide quality compound to the 4G and 5G industry.

• Competition/antitrust
• Intellectual property
• Litigation
• Patent contentious
• Plaintiff/claimant

• Automotive
• Construction and materials
• Consumer goods and services
• Energy
• Industrials

• Admitted to practice in New York
• Admitted to practice in Fed. Dist. SDNY
• Admitted to practice in Fed. Dist. EDNY
• Admitted to Practice in USPTO

• Juris Doctor, Washington University in St. Louis (1999-2002)
• Bachelor of Law, China University of Political Science and Law (1996-1998)
• Bachelor of Science, Qingdao University, 1992-1996