In late May, Maoyu Zhang was appointed by China’s State Intellectual Property Office as deputy commissioner to succeed Tiejun Yang upon his retirement. Previously, Zhang was the deputy director of China’s patent office. Spruson & Ferguson opened a new office in Bangkok, Thailand in May with Daniel Greif leading the practice. Greif has joined the firm as a principal from Siam Premier International, and previously worked in-house. The new office will provide patent and trade mark prosecution and contentious services.
Another new office set up in Asia has seen Vinson & Elkins embarking on Taipei business in May, focusing on IP dispute resolution. Partners David Tsai and Christopher Kao hold the reins.
In early May, Simone Mitchell moved from DLA Piper to join K&L Gates as a partner in Sydney. K&L Gates has also bolstered its Hong Kong and China practice by hiring Jay Chiu as a partner from Goodwin Procter in April. Chiu is based in Hong Kong office and heads up Asian IP and litigation practice.
At the end of April, White & Case added David Albagli to the partnership in Tokyo. He previously spent nine years with Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner. In the same month, Wataru Shimizu joined Anderson Mori & Tomotsune as a partner in the Tokyo office from Ohno & Partners.
