Challenges in Protecting Intellectual Property in China

This presentation will inform rights holders and policy makers about the risks to American intellectual property (IP) as we pursue strategic competition with the People’s Republic of China, and approaches to mitigate exposure. Problematic areas include: Forced technology transfer; lack of transparency, impartiality, and due process in IP enforcement and judicial proceedings; non-market-based and unfairly low royalties for U.S.-owned standard essential patents (SEPs) and non-SEPs; unfair targeting of U.S. IP owners for antitrust enforcement; restrictions on technology licensing terms; poor trade secret protection; bad faith trademark squatting; patent concerns, including lack of patent-term extensions, inability to submit supplemental data to initial patent applications, and lack of regulatory data protections; chronic product counterfeiting; and persistent infringement of copyrighted material through illicit streaming and circumvention of technological protective measures.

Learning Objectives:

• Identifying critical problematic IP sectors concerning patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and enforcement
• Factors in assessing and managing risk, and structuring protective protocols
• Expert U.S. Government resources to help evaluate and mitigate hazards

Conrad W. Wong Senior Attorney, China Team, Office of Policy and International Affairs Intellectual Property Attaché for Guangzhou, China United States Patent and Trademark Office Alexandria, Virginia March 19, 2026 Conrad Wong is a Senior Attorney with the China Team in the Office of Policy and International Affairs at the headquarters of the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) in Alexandria, Virginia. He specializes in American and Chinese intellectual property law and enforcement matters, formulates and promotes U.S. intellectual property policy, and assists rights holders in registering and protecting their intellectual property assets.

From 2007 to 2012 and again from 2019 to 2022, he was resident in southern China, representing the PTO as the Intellectual Property Attaché with the United States Consulate General in Guangzhou. Concurrent with his present assignment to the China Team at PTO Alexandria, he continues to serve as the PTO Guangzhou Intellectual Property Attaché, supervising remotely the Guangzhou office’s activities and local staff. He is responsible for American intellectual property issues in southern, southwestern, and southeastern China as well as the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macao.

He has 33 years of experience in intellectual property matters, representing the United States Government and the private sector. In 1993, he joined the PTO as a Trademark Examiner, became a Senior Trademark Attorney, and then joined the Office of Policy and International Affairs. Prior experience includes clerking for a Maryland state trial judge, and litigation practice in insurance-defense matters in Washington, D.C. He has served as a government-relations representative for an automotive trade association.

He is a graduate of The Johns Hopkins University and Georgetown University Law Center. Fluent in Cantonese, he is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia and the State of Maryland.