Arthur T. Yuan

Arthur Yuan has nearly 20 years of experience in all aspects of intellectual property law, allowing him to provide cost-effective methods and a holistic approach simultaneously in order to achieve the client’s objectives. As both a native speaker of Mandarin Chinese and a registered U.S. patent lawyer, he understands and is able to handle IP protection matters at an international level. He advises both domestic and foreign clients in a wide range of matters, from strategic patent and trademark prosecution to counseling international corporations doing business in the U.S., China and Taiwan and leveraging their IP assets.

To support his clients, Arthur draws upon his computer science background to counsel clients on a wide range of patentable technologies, including business methods, electronic commerce, fintech, electronics, payment processing, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, semiconductors, computer (mobile) operating systems, media content processing, telecommunication systems, search engines, database structures, automation and mechanical devices (such as tripods and gimbals). He has also worked with business management applications, data security, encryption, blockchain, electronic medical devices, mobile devices, social networks, web mashups and satellite transmission systems.

Arthur is experienced in resolving patent and trademark disputes. Of note, he defended a patent of a U.S. subsidiary of a Taiwan-based corporation in an ex parte reexamination proceeding before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The patent, after surviving the reexamination, led to a very favorable licensing deal against a major competitor. In another trademark dispute, Arthur successfully defended the same client against a trademark infringement allegation from an accuser (a Fortune 200 corporation) by using a prior patent of the accuser that specifically indicated that the trademark possesses a utilitarian function.

Arthur is also versed in covered business method proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) and trademark protection. He has advised international clients on trademark issues, especially dealing with countries that use some form of Chinese characters (e.g., China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macao, Singapore and Taiwan).

More recently, Arthur counsels clients on patent and trademark issues when selling products on online marketplaces. In addition, he counsels Hong Kong-based startups on strategically navigating IP protections around the world.

Outside of the legal practice, Arthur served as the executive director/director of the Chinese Intellectual Property Resource Center of John Marshall Law School (now UIC School of Law) from 2010 to 2018. The school has longstanding ties to many Chinese and Taiwanese government entities responsible for IP law and, as such, Arthur managed and coordinated conferences and educational training programs for the USPTO, U.S. federal courts, the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) (now China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA)), the Judicial Yuan of ROC and other Chinese delegations. He travels to China frequently to give lectures to patent examiners on U.S. intellectual property law. As a former director of the school’s IP Patent Clinic, Arthur also frequently counseled individual inventors on their innovations and assisted them in obtaining patents before the USPTO on a pro bono basis.