Li Yu has focused on intellectual property services for more than ten years, long serving leading internet and technology companies.  She is particularly adept at handling complex and difficult intellectual property issues.  

Over the past year, Li Yu handled several matters with genuine first-of-their-kind significance. She represented Baidu in asserting well-known trademark protection for the “Xiaodu” AI interactive system products—the first case in China to address judicial protection of a well-known mark in the AI product context—establishing a judicial reference point for trademark protection in the AI field. She also acted for Tencent in a series of copyright litigations.

In an unfair-competition case concerning exclusive operating rights, she successfully petitioned for a transfer of jurisdiction away from a venue affected by local protectionism and won at first instance; it was the first such case in Hebei Province and provides a demonstrative model for improving the local business environment. As the project leader on an application in Mainland China for recognition and enforcement of a Hong Kong arbitration award, she argued the validity of key clauses in standard foreign-trade contracts, the court adopted her team’s submissions, and the client designated the matter as an internal model case.  

She actively participates in international and domestic industry seminars and expresses her professional opinions. She holds positions such as secretary-general and committee member of the Intellectual Property Industry Association. She is also hired as an intellectual property expert by multiple market supervision and management bureaus. Her professional development also includes practical teaching at universities, promoting integration of legal theory and practice.

In the future, she hopes to continue focusing on intellectual property business, while combining with the trend of Chinese enterprises going global, the explosive growth in the fields of artificial intelligence and big data, to provide comprehensive legal services to enterprises from a broader international perspective.