Over twenty years of hardship and perseverance, we Panawell fellows have been working diligently to deliver our dreams.

Though we cannot see time, we are all witness of its power.

On the occasion of Panawell’s 20^th anniversary, we have planned a series of interviews. Let’s follow the steps of our predecessors and colleagues, looking back at our developments, refreshing our emotional memories, drawing strength, and standing strong.

Twenty-year perseverance has brought glory. Wisdom and aspiration are foundation of success.

For the 13th interview, we have invited the General Manager, Mr. William Yang.

Mr. Yang, partner, lawyer and trademark attorney, was graduated from the Foreign Language School of Sichuan Normal University, majoring in the English language and literature, and from China Renmin University Law School, majoring in the intellectual property law. He worked in the Ministry of Supervision of China and the Foreign Affairs Bureau of Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China, and received training in the intellectual property law at two U.S. law firms.

Mr. Yang has been engaged, for 27 years, in provision of intellectual property legal services to large, medium, and small enterprises, universities, research institutions and individuals in China and overseas, gaining rich and extensive experience in IP legal consultation, licensing, assignment, anti-unfair competition, and IP-involved litigation.

Mr. Yang is a member of the China Branch of the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI) and the China Branch of the International Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys (FICPI). In 2014 and 2015, he was awarded the title of China Trademark and Copyright Lawyer Star by the British magazine Intellectual Property Management for two consecutive years; and from 2011 to 2021, he was named a recommended Chinese patent litigation attorney by the British magazine IAM for ten consecutive years. He was also enlisted in the Intellectual Property Expert Database by the Intellectual Property Office of the Beijing Municipal Government in January 2020.

◆ Tell us about why you joined Panawell? What are the original aspiration and opportunity behind your professional practice?

As the saying goes, the cause is pre-determined and deeply believed. In 1988, I was graduated with an English major, and then accidentally admitted to the second bachelor program in the intellectual property law offered by China Renmin University. However, I was not, after graduation in 1990, able to get a position in the National Copyright Administration, Trademark Office or Intellectual Property Office as I had expected to. For they are the major intellectual property-related government agencies. After working for five years in the foreign affairs offices of the discipline inspection and supervision organs, I was unexpectedly recommended, in 1996, by a respected teacher, to China Patent Agency (Hong Kong) Ltd, one of the four major IP agencies in China, and worked there for 11 years. I provided IP legal services to large, medium and small clients in China and overseas, representing them in various types of cases, keeping on learning and acuminating experience to sharpen my insights and ideas for provision of professional IP-related legal services to my clients. It was my hope to put all this into full practice, and the chance came in the golden Autumn of 2006, when the skylight of fate brightly lit up again, and I and several like-minded colleagues got an opportunity to take over, as partners, the Panawell & Partners LLC, which had been incorporated three years before by two senior researchers of the China Academy of Sciences. This turned a new page in my life, and I began to lead Panawell into a new era of providing its comprehensive intellectual property legal services to the domestic and foreign clients. Now my two sideburns have turn grey, but my original aspiration remain unchanged. With full gratitude, I’ll strive to reach new heights in my professional practice.

◆ Tell us something you remember most clearly about your practice? What have inspired your most in the years of practice in your IP service provision?

Recalling the nearly 20 years of IP law practice in Panawell, there are many things that are unforgettable and touching and often set me reflecting on a lot. Here, I’d like to mention just a few:

In the Spring of 2007, after visiting a large company in the United States for a talk lasting hours, we found ourselves on a mountain road without any transportation to be found in the late evening. When we were anxious and helpless, an American lady drove up and gave us a ride to the downtown. Even today, the event is still fresh in my memory, and I feel quite grateful to her for the kind help she gave us.

In the early summer of 2008, we visited a German firm for the first time. Right after we told the German lawyers about our Panawell team and practice experience in detail and answered a few questions, the firm entrusted us with two patent applications. I was then very much moved, and the event is quite alive in my memory up to this day.

From 2020 to 2022, during the three-year epidemic, most of my colleagues overcame various difficulties and worked persistently in their posts, often, overtime, to finish their assigned work entrusted by our clients and to meet the deadlines in a careful and professional manner. This is something quite unforgettable to me.

Practicing in the IP industry for nearly 30 years, I’ve gotten many personal thoughts which I can briefly summarize in four terms: enthusiasm, persistence, professionalism, and change.

The IP law practice requires serious treatment and particularly cautious working attitude. and only passion for, and lasting enthusiasm in, IP legal service provision can inspire me, and help me to get my team come together, to move forward in time of stress, and to face all complicated challenges from unbearable legal consequences, tight deadlines, and cumbersome procedures.

This is an important industry that requires stress resistant capability. Only by always remembering our original aspiration and purpose, standing up to the challenges, and remaining strong willed, is it possible to give confidence and hope to, and win trust from, my team and clients.

This is an industry that requires continuous learning and thinking to provide better professional services, only with the professional capabilities, adequacy and service-oriented mentality can we meet the complex needs of our clients, well accomplish their entrustments, and win their lasting trust.

This is an industry that requires constant adjustment and change of service provision methods, contents and adequacy in order to constantly adapt to the development and change of technology, law, needs, knowledge application, and nature of infringements. Only innovation and timely, positive and good adjustments and change can enable us to adapt, survive, and develop.

In June 2007, Mr. Yang visited a German firm with partner Ms. Jiang Hua

In 2017, Mr. Yang visited a Canadian firm with colleague Ms. Jane Wang of the Patent Administration Department

◆ This year marks Panawell’s 20^th anniversary, do you have anything to say to the Firm on this occasion?

With twenty years of ups and downs, constant trials have made us strong. Feeling deeply grateful, I’ll continue to ride the wind and waves, remain committed and trustworthy to our Chinese and foreign clients, live up to their endurable trust, live up to my colleagues who accompany me all the way, and strive to attain new heights in our practice.

Let me quote three lines from the late famous poet Mr. Wang Guozhen's poem Love Life, as a message of encouragement to myself and my colleagues:

I don't think about whether I can make it or not

Now that the destination is set

All we will do is move on in all weathers!

We will strive hard, and pass on the torch of fine tradition,

With gratitude to you for the twenty years of companionship and witness.

With aspirations reaching far and wide,

Panawell, keeping its original intention and purpose as solid as rock, is ready again to take on the road to even greater success in the future.

When the wind and tide is good, it is time to set sail and start a new journey with rough waves and bright sunshine.