Ms. Heather Hou is a partner of litigation team of Unitalen Attorney-at-Law. She has been engaged in IP specialized legal practice since 2005, working for Wanhuida and then Rouse & Co International LLP before joining Unitalen in 2014. As a senior litigator, she has led hundreds of cases and her areas of practice include patent infringement, trademark infringement, copyright infringement, unfair competition and IP rights prosecution administrative litigations. Many of her cases provided ground-breaking solutions for borderline and knotty IP issues, and therefore were named by the Supreme Court, Beijing High Court, QBPC and other authorities as top IP cases or typical IP cases. In additional to her experience in litigations, Ms. HOU has advised many international enterprises including SEB, BRAUN, Osram, GROHE, MARS on IP related matters and provided her clients with overall strategy and suggestion for IP rights prosecution and protection in China.
Typical Cases
1. Administrative litigation concerning opposition to trademark“微信(Wechat)”, selected as one of the "Annual Top 10 IP cases" by Beijing High Court in 2016;
2. Supreme Court’s re-trial of “奥普AOPU” trademark invalidation administrative litigation, selected by Beijing IP Court as one of 18 typical bad-faith registration cases in 2016.
3. Supreme Court’s re-trial of“上海东方”vs. “广州东方”（Shanghai Oriental Optical vs. Guangzhou Oriental Optical）, which involves conflict between trademark and trade name and pioneers a solution for trade name protection in China.
4. Supreme Court’s re-trial of "LAFITE MANOR (拉菲庄园)" trademark invalidation case, selected as one of the "Annual Top 10 IP cases" by the Supreme Court in 2016.
5. Baidu vs Sogou for unfair competition concerning “internet traffic hijacking”, selected by Beijing IP Court as one of 50 typical knotty cases in 2016, and Sogou vs Baidu for unfair competition concerning bundling of irrelevant software during downloading.
6."四大名捕 (The Four)" copyright infringement case, selected as one of the "Annual Top 10 IP cases" by Beijing Higher Court in 2016.
7. Invention patent infringement of ACTIFRY deep fryer, rated as one of the Outstanding Cases in 2011-2012 by QBPC, for the first-time application of Article 75 of Evidence Rules (like Evidence Discovery) in patent infringement case, and stop the infringer in stage of R&D.
8. Unfair competition case involving copying "Whiskas" cat food trade dress, rated as one of the Typical Intellectual Property Cases in 2012 by Beijing High Court, for the first-time protection for a trade dress based on single color.
9. Two copyright infringement cases on behalf of Dove (the chocolate brand), using technical measures to simulate and reproduce the process of plagiarism which played a key role in the determination of copyright infringement.
10. Hui Yuan juice vs Hui Yuan canned fruit, tried by Shandong High Court for the first instance and the Supreme Court for the second instance. Both courts found trademark infringement although the sued mark “Hui Yuan” was a registered trademark of the defendant covering the goods canned fruit, and the Supreme Court awarded the plaintiff RMB 10 million in compensation. This case was selected by the Supreme Court as 50 Typical IP Cases in 2017.
11. LAFITE (拉菲) vs CHATEAU MORON LAFITTE(拉菲特庄园), which is the first time in Shanghai jurisdiction to recognize an unregistered well-known trademark. This case was selected as Top 10 IP Cases by Shanghai High Court in 2017 and also selected by the Supreme Court as 50 Typical IP Cases in 2017.
12. Design patent infringement case on behalf of world-wide famous fitness equipment manufacturer Technogym S.P.A., whose claim of damages RMB 1 million was fully supported by two-level courts. That’s the maximum amount of statutory damages according to PRC patent law.
Education/Alumni:
- Jilin University, Bachelor of Laws
- Jilin University, Master of Laws
Network Memberships: INTA
