Ray Lei Zhao

Partner/Attorney at Law/Trademark Agent

Practice Area:  Countering unfair competition and infringement investigation;/Litigation & prosecution on IP matters./Enterprise’s trademark strategic planning and research;/Provide legal consulting service for the enterprises

Tel: 86-10-59208921　Fax: 86-10-59208895　E-mail: lei.zhao@unitalen.com　　　Office: Beijing

Professional Experience

Mr. Zhao joined Unitalen in 2002 and began to practice prosecution and protection of IP rights, with over 20 years’ professional experience in IP field. As a senior partner of Unitalen, he successively served as the Director of the Legal Department and the Director of the International Trademark Department, personally handled or guided other lawyers and agents to handle a large numbers of IP cases, and accumulated profound theoretical knowledge and practical experience. He is good at solving trademark disputes and trademark infringement problems through administrative and judicial procedures, and has successfully dealt with many quite difficult litigation and non-litigation cases.

Mr. Zhao has handled series cases related to IP prosecution and litigation of many domestic and foreign multinational companies, He has also served as a perennial IP consultant for many famous listed companies, providing strategies and legal advices related to IP rights. Several cases handled by Mr. Zhao were rated by provincial high Courts as the top ten intellectual property cases of the year.

He is awarded the Outstanding Individual Lawyer in China on both litigation and prosecution by WTR for many years in succession since 2013. He is continuously selected as the IP Experts TOP100 CHINA by Asia IP for many years. He has been chosen by Leaders in Law Awards Panel as the winner for Trademark Law Expert of the Year in China in 2022 Global Awards. He has been chosen as the winner of the 2023 Corporate INTL Magazine Global Award:‘Trademark Attorney of the Year in China - 2023’. And he is selected into Foreign-related Attorney Talent Pool by Beijing Bar Association in 2021. Meantime, Mr. Zhao is selected as the expert of Expert Database of Beijing Intellectual Property Office in 2021, the expert of Expert Committee of Beijing Trademark Association in 2022. He is appointed as the Part-time Mediator of the People's Mediation Committee for Intellectual Property Disputes of China Trademark Association (from 2022).

As an expert, Mr. Zhao has been frequently invited by the Trademark Office of China to participate in the revision of China's Trademark Law, implementation regulations, review rules, review guidelines, general illegal behavior standards, and the regulation of trademark application behavior, and also participated in the discussion of laws and regulations of the State Intellectual Property Office for many times.

He has also delivered keynote speeches at large seminars organized by many international associations and governments for so many times, including INTA, ECTA, FICPI, AIPPI China Branch and China Trademark Festival, systematically introducing China's intellectual property system.

Education Background

Master of Laws, University of San Francisco　
Bachelor of Laws, Northwest University of Politics and Law

Professional Qualification: 

Mr. Zhao is a member of many international organizations, such as FICPI, INTA, ECTA, MARQUES and AIPPI. He is also a member of All-China Lawyers Association, China Intellectual Property Research Society and China Trademark Association (CTA).
Mr. Zhao was the co-chair of the China Global Advisory Council (GAC) of INTA (from 2020 to 2022), being responsible for providing advice and suggestions to the Chairman the CEO of INTA, promoting regional policy development and cross-industry communication. And he is a member of Unreal Campaign Committee of INTA.
He is also the Deputy Director of International Exchange and Development Committee of China Trademark Association (from 2019 until now), the member of Academic Committee and digital committee of China Trademark Association (from 2016 to 2020).
He is selected as the Executive Secretary of Beijing Trademark Association (from 2021 until now) and Director of Education and Training Committee of Beijing Trademark Association (from 2022).
He is member of Copyright Committee of International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (referred to as AIPPI) (from 2018 until now), member of Domain Committee of ECTA (from 2016 to 2019), member of Anti-Counterfeiting Committee of ECTA (from 2019 until now), member of Copyright Committee of MARQUES (from 2016 to 2019), member of China Team of MARQUES (from 2019 until now), and member of Trademark Committee Beijing Lawyers Association (from 2019 until now).
At present, Ray Zhao is an external tutor for postgraduate students in MTI College of China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL) (from 2020 until now), a part-time teacher for postgraduate students in Shanghai International Intellectual Property College of Tongji University (TJU) (from 2017 until now) and using English to teach foreign students, and a part-time teacher in Beijing Professional Cadre College of Political Science and Law (only 2012).

Articles

Lawyer Zhao Lei attaches great importance to theoretical learning and summing up working experience. Mr. Zhao is actively engaged in trademark theory and practice research and has published many articles in influential IP magazines and newspapers both at home and abroad, such as World Trademark Review, World Intellectual Property Review, ECTA Daily, Trademark Lawyer, Asia IP, IP Pro, China Intellectual Property Newspaper, China Industry & Commerce News and China Invention & Patent. He also participated in the compilation of professional books such as Trademark and Patent Agency, Practical Trademark Guide, Intellectual Property Strategy and Practice, Enterprise Intellectual Property Protection Series -- Trademarks, etc. He has been interviewed by many newspapers and magazines, such as China Inventions and Patents, Famous Brand Times, China Intellectual Property News, Beijing News, etc.

Working Language

Chinese English