In 1984, Bradley Yu was a student at the Southwest University of Political Science and Law beginning study law, the same year the Patent Law of the People’s Republic China was passed. Little did he know at that time how his life would become deeply intertwined with intellectual property. In 1988, Bradley Yu finished his undergraduate courses and was admitted to Peking University to study postgraduate law courses. The major of law was not popular at that time, and Peking University only enrolled 57 postgraduates that year. Bradley Yu chose to study civil law, only one year after the General Principles of Civil Law of the People’s Republic of China was put into force. Though the legal system was in its formative years, and legal education had not been well noted, the majority of law teachers in Peking University were paramount figures. Bradley Yu’s first tutor was Li Youyi, who had worked for the Legislative Affairs Commission of National People’s Congress. He had taken part in the drafting of the Criminal Law and General Principles of Civil Law of the People’s Republic of China, before becoming a professor in the Law Department at Peking University. Bradley Yu became a student of jurisconsult Wei Zhenying after Li Youyi passed away in 1989.

After seven years of legal education, Bradley Yu had to choose an occupation. In 1991, the job assignment system was still in existence for undergraduates. For postgraduates, it was a half planned assignment: postgraduates could find jobs for themselves if there were quotas for graduates by the employers. Because the number of postgraduates was small and some ministries and commissions, universities and courts were in urgent need of law students, Bradley Yu had many choices. After considerable thought, he chose the Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce (Beijing AIC). “I thought the (Beijing) AIC was good, that is, I could make full use of my study and the salary was better there.” said Bradley.

First contact with IP

At the Beijing AIC, Bradley first worked in the Legal Affairs Department and then went to the Trademark and Advertisement Management Department. “I began to make contact with IP at this time,” he said.

The materials and products were scarce in the planned economy. They were provided as planned, and thus, advertisements were basically unnecessary. Trademarks were only used as a means for product quality management. The majority of the public only paid attention to product quality and price, and seldom noticed brands while shopping. However, when Bradley Yu began to touch upon trademark management, trademarks had played an increasingly important role in the daily life of the public.

 “When I joined the trademark management group, the importance of trademarks had begun to be noted. Some illegal infringement cases had arisen, and most of them were foreign-related infringements.” Bradley recalled that there were many small commodities markets, such as Hongqiao, Xiushui, Tianwaitian, Dongdaqiao, which sold counterfeits of foreign products from Guangdong and Fujian. These foreign companies would file complaints with local AICs through their agencies in China. The AICs would then raid and seize counterfeit products. Though Bradley Yu worked for the AIC, he often participated in raids together with personnel from district AICs.

Bradley Yu can still clearly recall seized counterfeit products. “The most impressive were counterfeits like Toshiba batteries, NIKE, and M&M chocolates.” At that time, enforcement measures included seizure, fines and license revocation for serious offenders. However, many of enforcement rules were not perfect. “In order to avoid errors, all cases were reported to the Legal Affairs Division for review, to determine illegality of the cases, necessity of raids and amount of fines to be imposed.”

Transformation from a state organ to an enterprise

For three successive years, Bradley Yu worked in the Beijing AIC’s Legal Affairs Department, Trademark and Advertisement Management Department and Research Department. He found his activities restricted and could not implement his ideas, and, worse, the relationships between personnel were very complicated. “I don’t like such an atmosphere and I felt very bored. I thought I was squandering time.” Bradley Yu sighed emotionally, and said that especially when he worked in the research department, he had to write government reports and he began to feel bored with the work.

Then an opportunity appeared: working for the trademark office of the Beijing AIC.

In China at that time, trademark applications were not filed through agencies, and applicants were not entitled to file before the China Trademark Office. “Also then, a system called ‘Transfer and Review System,’ had been adopted. Trademark applications would be filed at the local AICs first. In Beijing, trademark applications were to be filed before the trademark and advertisement department of district AICs, then they would be transferred to the Beijing AIC for review. Later, the Beijing AIC would transfer the applications to the China Trademark Office (CTMO) of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce for a multi-level examination and approval process. Things were better in Beijing since there were only two levels. While in other areas, there were more than two levels of examinations. In such a level-by-level transfer, application files were lost from time to time. Moreover, there were no regulations at the time.”

To cut through the red tape, the trials of trademark offices began in 1991. Some provincial city-level AICs were selected to set up trademark offices, and they then transferred the trademark specimens, applications to the China Trademark Office. Because the trial had achieved considerably good results, the Beijing AIC also set up a trademark office the following year.

Change from an enterprise to a free profession

In the trademark office, Bradley Yu was mainly in charge of trademark matters, including disputes, oppositions, infringement and counterfeiting. Later he was in charge of foreign trademark. As a result of his outstanding work, he was promoted to deputy director of the office and in charge of the key department.

As the trademark office belonged to the Beijing AIC and was state-owned, its development would be with limitation. However, Bradley Yu was not satisfied with the status quo and he went to discuss a possible reform of the office from an enterprise to a private business. Bradley explained: “I thought at that time most of business income was turned over to higher authorities, so its development would be restrained and staff was not enthusiastic either.”

He came up with a plan for institutional reform. Unexpectedly, the plan had caused a great uproar. “AIC leaders were rather angry, criticizing us for breaking up with the AIC after becoming rich,” Bradley recalled.

After the plan was rejected, Bradley Yu again considered leaving and starting a business. He resigned in a determined way. At that time, he did not want to be a mere lawyer. During his years of work at the trademark office, he found that IP must have a broad future and he also realized that companies would attach more importance to IP in addition to science and technology with the development of China’s economy. In this field, Bradley Yu found the new continent.

The fate of the Beijing AIC trademark office was not fixed either: three years after Bradley left, it went with the tide and became a privately owned business called BTA Intellectual Property Agency Co., Ltd.

Hardships of a starting business

After leaving the Beijing AIC trademark office, Bradley Yu established Beijing Unitalen Attorneys At Law with his partners.

In the beginning, they rented a 50-square-meter office in the proximity to the State Intellectual Property Office of China. They brought desks, computers, and printers from homes, and started their business. Initially there were only 4-5 people, later they were joined by 2 more. “It was very laborious at first. People normally went to offices under AICs to file trademark applications and did not recognize us. We did a lot of promotional work, for example, we sent out brochures at exhibitions. To some companies, we first sent letters and materials, and then we made phone calls and paid visits to lecture on trademarks”. Bradley Yu sighed emotionally that “I remember once that I rode a bicycle all the way from the China University of Political Science and Law to Shunyi for only one trademark application.”

Bradley Yu was fully prepared for the change of driving a car to work in an enterprise from riding a bicycle to seek business opportunities. He said “this is what we had to face when we decided to start a business by ourselves, and we needed to get mentally prepared and have ability to adapt. Previously in the state organ nothing was personal, we did not care about whether clients would come or not. Now things had changed, we had to go and solicit clients.”

Until now, in order to carry out the idea of attaching importance to clients, Bradley Yu has always paid visits to overseas clients. He said, “In our visits to clients, I know what they need. Frequent contact enables us to know what services the client really needs, so that we may improve our service and management. Besides, during our visits to patron clients, we are able to listen to their suggestions and even complaints. In this way, we may do a better job.”

Unitalen’s growing and expanding

One year after the establishment, Unitalen had moved from a 50-square-meter office to a 130-square-meter house. In 2000, in order to accommodate the business and improve working conditions, Unitalen moved to a rented 300-square-meter office in the International Corporate Square along the Financial Street.

“At first, more than half of the office was vacant, but it was occupied soon. Then we rented another 100 square meters.” Bradley Yu said. The office was too small to accommodate more employees after two years. In 2003, Unitalen moved to Scitech Place with a 1,300-square-meter office covering over half of the seventh floor. Bradley Yu recalled that “at that time there were about 100 staff members and there was plenty of space left.” However, with the fast increase in personnel, Unitalen rented the entire seventh floor. In 2005, Unitalen rented the eighth floor and in 2009 the eleventh floor. 
 
In recent years, Unitalen has seen an increase in staff. There are 390 people at the Scitech Place alone. If staffs in branch offices across China are counted, there are more than 500. In 2002, Unitalen has created its first branch office in Wenzhou. It presently has more than 20 branch offices across China.

Talking about the reasons for the fast growth, Bradley Yu said “mainly because we have a strong sense of service. We had attached great importance to the quality of service and our customer, therefore, Unitalen could develop so fast. ”

Pooling talents and emphasizing the quality of service is fundamental

Since 2000, competition has become fierce in the field. However, Unitalen has not been eliminated, on the contrary, it has grown stronger. “It has something to do with our emphasis on the service quality. We have people in place first before we do anything. Now we have many excellent talents.” Bradley Yu added. In addition to cultivating talents, Unitalen enrolled many more excellent people from other offices. “Talent is our basis. Besides, we are demanding in service quality. We have a special department in charge of service quality inspection. Normally it would be hard for law offices to do so.”

According to the procedure of service quality inspection, Unitalen will select one or two cases from its attorneys to appraise the quality of translation, applications and quality of English correspondence with clients. Results of the public appraisal will be one of the criteria of promotions. Bradley Yu said “all the quality appraisals are done by people outside the office; therefore, the results are very objective.”

There is another reason for Unitalen’s rapid growth, that is, the outstanding partner system. Their partner system helped not only keeping the staffs but also in attracting IPR elites to join. In China, Unitalen is one of the most stable law firms.

Future expectations

During the past 14 years, Unitalen developed from a 5-staff firm to a 500-staff firm, which is a miracle in the IPR field in China. When talking about the future expectations of Unitalen, Bradley Yu quoted the Unitalen slogan “to Top in China and be First-Class in the World”. He said “I wish Unilaten can do better and better. It grows stronger when I am still working here; I wish it can develop further without me.”

Bradley’s plan for the Unitalen future is that it grows stronger and larger in China’s IP field and to expand overseas. “We have set up a branch office in Japan, and we are going to open branch offices in the U.S. Our goal is to provide our customers with the best law service.”

 (Translated by Wang Hongjun)