Mr. Mengchun Zhang specializes in various aspects of intellectual property law, including trademark prosecution, trademark administrative cases, trademark and copyright infringement, data compliance and protection, unfair competition, AIC complaints and criminal raid actions.

 

Prior to joining JunZeJun Law Offices, Mr. Zhang worked at prestigious foreign and domestic law firms for around 15 years. Representing renowned global corporations, Mr. Zhang has handled hundreds of IP cases before over different Chinese courts. Multiple cases he handled and won have been recognized as representative IP cases by various Chinese courts and authorities, such as a guiding case by the by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, a representative criminal case by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, a top ten representative IP case of Beijing Court, a top ten representative IP case of Quanzhou Court, a top ten representative electronic car IP case, a top ten administrative protection case by the QBPC, and the deal of the year by the China Business Law Journal.

 

Representative Works

Civil Cases:

• Represented Beijing Tong Ren Tang in a trademark infringement and unfair competition litigation against Tianjin Tong Ren Tang before the Beijing IP Court, requesting the court to order Tianjin Tong Ren Tang to cease the use of the trade name "Tong Ren Tang" and compensate CNY 50 million for Beijing Tong Ren Tang's losses. This case is expected to be one of the most significant IP cases tried by the PRC courts, as it involves controversial issues, i.e. brand conflict with a time-honored brand along with the litigation dispute involving listed companies.
• Represented Jo Malone (“JML”) in a trademark infringement and unfair competition litigation against a local company before the Guangzhou Baiyun District Court, successfully obtaining an injunction order and preserving the defendants' assets of more than CNY 2 million. The Court fully supported JML's claim of CNY 3 million and reasonable costs of CNY 500,000.
• Represented GS YUASA in a trademark infringement and unfair competition litigation against a legal representative and his companies before the Suzhou Intermediate District Court. The Court determined that the legal representative should be jointly and severally liable for the infringing acts, along with his companies. Additionally, the Court protected the decoration of GS battery products and supported GS YUASA's claim of CNY 2 million.
• Represented China International Marine Containers (“CIMC”) in a trademark infringement and unfair competition litigation against Beijing Zhong Ji Energy company and others before the Beijing IP Court, obtaining a favorable judgment in which the mark “Zhong Ji in Chinese” is recognized as a well-known trademark. The Court also support supported CIMC's claim of CNY 2 million.
• Represented Hai Pa Wang in a trademark infringement and unfair competition litigation against a Hai Ba Wang local company and others before the Quanzhou IP Court, obtaining a favorable judgment, for the first time, the mark “Hai Pa Wang in Chinese” is recognized as a well-known trademark. This is also the first case of the well-known trademark recognition before the Quanzhou IP Court since its establishment.
• Represented Tencent in a copyright infringement litigation against a video company and an electric car company. This is the first case involving copyright infringement on the electronic screen of an electronic car. This case has been named as one of top ten representative electronic car IP cases in 2024.
• Represented Tencent in an unfair competition litigation against a local company involving batch marketing of WeChat and unfair use of WeChat data before the Beijing IP Court. The Court fully supported Tencent's claim of CNY 5 million. This case has been named as a representative IP case of Beijing Court in 2023.
• Represented Tencent in copyright infringement and unfair competition series litigations against a short video company before the Chongqing First Intermediate Court and the Beijing Internet Court. The series of cases involved the determination of copyright issues of short videos as well as the liability of network service providers of short video platforms, making them the most cutting-edge cases in the current copyright field in PRC China.
• Represented Starbucks in defending a malicious trademark infringement litigation filed by a domestic company before the Quanzhou Intermediate Court. The Court dismissed all the claims of the local company based on trademark fair use. This is the first case in which the PRC court held that the descriptive use of product shape would not be deemed as trademark use in judicial practice. This groundbreaking decision has garnered significant media attention, including the China Intellectual Property News. It has also been named as a representative trademark case of Quanzhou Court in 2021.
• Represented Land Rover in defending a malicious trademark infringement litigation filed by a domestic company before the Ningbo Intermediate Court. The Court dismissed the local company's claims due to the lack of compensation evidence.
• Represented Brooks in defending a malicious trademark infringement litigation filed by a domestic sports company before the Quanzhou Intermediate Court. The Court dismissed partial claims of the local company based on the lack of compensation evidence.

 

Criminal and administrative raid actions:

• Represented Starbucks in working closely with the Guangdong and Jiangsu Police Station Bureaus (“PSBs”) to conduct criminal raid actions against the defendants, in which the illegal turnover of the case amounts to over 10 million. The case involved the coordination of PSBs in different areas, cross-border evidence collection, investigation of manufacturing factories and warehouses, etc. The case attracted significant media attention and has sent a strong deterrent to the counterfeiters engaging in the manufacturing and sale of brand owner’s products. The case has been selected as a representative criminal case by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate in 2019. The case has also been selected as the deal of the year 2020 by the China Business Law Journal.
• Represented Pernod Ricard in assisting the Fujian PSBs in conducting criminal raid actions against a criminal gang. The case has been selected as a representative criminal case by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate in 2019. The case has also been selected as the deal of the year 2020 by the China Business Law Journal.
• Represented Pernod Ricard in partnership with the Guangzhou PSBs to conduct criminal raid actions against three criminal gangs. All the 17 defendants have been sentenced to imprisonment without probation.
• Represented L Brands in coordinating the local AIC to conduct administrative raid action against a PRC individual based on trademark infringement. The case involved the online platform's assistance of providing online sales and the suspect's forging of another's factory name on a quality certificate. The case was selected as a top ten administrative protection case by the QBPC.

 

Administrative cases:

• Represented Burger King in filing a retrial case before the Supreme People's Court ("SPC"). This case involved the determination of the likelihood of confusion. The SPC supported Burger King's retrial based on the results of notarized market survey, demonstrating actual confusion. This case was named as a representative trademark administrative case by IPhouse in 2020.
• Represented Boeing v. National Intellectual Property Administration ("NIPA") in an invalidation case before the Beijing IP Court, obtaining a favorable judgment that, for the first time, the mark Boeing is recognized as a well-known trademark in PRC China.
• Represented Church & Dwight v. NIPA in an invalidation case before the Beijing IP Court. The court invalidated a pirating mark based on around ten bad-faith applications/registrations according to Article 44.1. This case was named as a representative trademark administrative case by IPhouse in 2019.
• Represented Leica v. NIPA in an invalidation case before the Beijing IP Court, obtaining a favorable judgment. This is the first-time recognition of the mark Leica as a well-known trademark in PRC China.
• Represented Volvo v. NIPA in an invalidation case before the Beijing IP Court. This case involves the role of the cited mark's fame in determining the likelihood of confusion. This case garnered substantial media attention, including coverage by the China Intellectual Property News.

 

Trademark Portfolios / Copyright Protection

• Managed trademark portfolios for famous international and domestic companies across a range of industries; advised on domain name issues, design and copyright protection.

 

Publication

• Comprehensive Establishment of Rights Protection and Compliance System for Online Competitive Acts, Wolters Kluwer, 2024
• US Laws on the Protection of Shape Trademarks, Lung Tin, 2023
• Case Law Research on Judicial Interpretation of Anti-Unfair Competition Law, IP ForeFront, 2022
• How to Conduct Enforcement based on the New PRC Seed Law, IP ForeFront, 2022
• Experience and Prospect: A Study Research on Punitive Damages in China, IP Economy, 2021
• A Brief Introduction to Brand Owner's Follow-ups in Criminal Cases, Baker Mckenzie & FenXun, 2021
• Application on Article 44.1 of the PRC Trademark Law, Baker Mckenzie & FenXun, 2020
• Entrusted by an Internet company to complete a project research named “How to deal with Trademark Piracy for Internet Company”, 2022

 

Professional Activities

• Presentation on “IP Division and Protection”, International Cooperation Center of the Ministry Of Science and Technology.
• Presentation on “How the PRC courts consider each factor when determining punitive damage and how to obtain a high compensation”, INTA.
• Presentation on “In the Shoes of the Chinese Court: How Would Hermes v. Metabirkins Play Out in China?”, INTA.
• Presentation on “How to handle Trademark Infringement and Unfair Competition Cases”, Sinopharm Group.
• Presentation on “Criteria for judging Trademark Infringement and Ordinary Trademark Violations”, Fuzhou MSA.