Profile
As a partner in Taylor English’s Intellectual Property Department, Dr. Li counsels companies on intellectual property rights involving Chinese companies. He helps his clients navigate Chinese trade secrets and China’s intellectual property rights. His comprehensive intellectual property practice includes patent prosecution, patent infringement assessment, patent right licensing agreements, patentability, and intellectual property counseling and due diligence. By facilitating legal teams to tackle oil and gas, engineering, procurement and construction projects for Chinese state-owned enterprises and large companies in China’s private sector, Dr. Li guides his clients through effectively managing Chinese intellectual property relationships.
Dr. Li handles patent litigation for a diverse range of technology companies in the biotechnology, biopharmaceuticals, pharmaceuticals, stem cell technologies (including cell therapy such as tissue engineering), and telecommunications and electronics industries.
Dr. Li counsels clients on small molecule pharmaceutical patent matters, including new chemical entity and formulation patents, and related paragraph IV certification issues in association with new drug application or abbreviated new drug application matters.
During the 2005 Hong Kong Jockey Club Traditional Chinese Medicine (TMC) Institute symposium, Dr. Li presented on IP protection related to prior art challenges faced by the TMC. Dr. Li proposed a TMC IP protection protocol, known as “finger printing,” which is based on a marker compound(s) or the level(s) of the marker compound(s) and is now widely used.
Dr. Li has extensive experience in life science related intellectual property matters. He assisted UCLA in securing a large portfolio of patents on a protein discovered by a group of UCLA professors. This portfolio successfully grew from the UCLA research laboratories to become the foundation of a public ally traded company.
Dr. Li was mentioned in the 2014 and 2015 Legal 500 for the Intellectual Property and Patent Licensing and Transactional categories for advising the technology licensing arm of Sinopec – Sinopec TECH – on freedom to operate issues worldwide.
Dr. Li acquired his law degree from Vanderbilt Law School. Additionally, he gained his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of South Carolina and a B.Sc. in Chemistry from Nankai University in Tianjin, China. He speaks fluent Mandarin.
Memberships
American Bar Association
American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA)
Foreign Languages
- Mandarin (Chinese)
Newsroom
Speaking Engagements
- "China Roadmap Conference," The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, Seattle, June 10, 2006
- "Global IP Strategies," The State IP Office of China, August 16, 2005
- Three Lecture Series, "U.S. Patent Practice," Shanghai Municipal Government Intellectual Property Service Center, February 20, 2003
- "IPR Protection and Enforcement in China," The U.S. Fulbright Conference, Guangzhou, China, February 14, 2003
- "Intellectual Property Rights and the Development of A Knowledge-Based Economy," Georgia State University College of Law, October 9, 2002
- "Intellectual Property Right Enforcement and the Development of A Knowledge-Based Economy," and "Administrative Efficiency and Deterrence as Corner Stones for IPR Enforcement," sponsored by the American Institute in Taiwan and U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong, in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, July 2002 to August 2002
- "Intellectual Property Commercialization: New Issues and Trends," Nanjing University, School of Law, Spring 2015; College of Modern Engineering and Applied Sciences, Spring 2015
- "IP Right Strategies in China," Haas Business School, University of California, Berkeley, October 2007
Headlines
News Releases
Education
Vanderbilt University Law School, JD, 2000
University of South Carolina, Ph.D., Chemistry, 1994
Nankai University, BSc, Chemistry, 1983
Bar Admissions
California
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office