Nevertheless, James still insisted on starting another new enterprise. In 2000, he and one of his schoolmates from California Institute of Technology started an internet company- China United On-line, a B2B internet platform. James was both the President and CEO. He wanted to initiate several projects including Enterprise Resource System, Customer Relationship Management, SMS, and online lotteries, which were indeed innovative ideas at that time. Because he persisted in developing this company into a listed company, he kept enlarging the company with over 400 employees and dozens of subsidiaries in China. The capital commitment was used up in a short time. After that, he tried to raise additional capital, but the Internet industry in China was declining quickly and he had no opportunities to do so. In the middle of 2001, he closed up this internet company. When he thought back over this company, he felt that he had not run this company with the primary goal of making a profit, but was instead only focused on developing it into a listed company. Although his ideas were advanced, without experience, those ideas could not be put into effect. For James, everything in his life had gone so smoothly before the failure of these two companies, so it was hard for him to accept these setbacks. Although he still had other chances in China, including an offer from another internet company which had invited him to become their CEO, he decided instead to return to America and to think over his failures calmly.
When returned to America, James decided to go camping at a mountainous area for over a month. He then visited almost all of western America’s national parks where he continued to think about his failures. Today, James believes that this period of his life helped him a lot. He said: “I almost didn’t have the word ‘failure’ in my dictionary because everything had gone so smoothly before that time. After that month, I tried to adjust myself and I realized that one should hold a surefooted attitude toward everything. Success could not be gained in one day. To feel at ease and justified in the process is enough, no matter if it is successful or not. Importance should be attached to the process. Although the market was not ready and all of one’s preparations may be wasted, if one left behind tracks for others to follow, then there will be no regret. After that, I lowered my expectations in life. My only expectation was to still be alive when I get up in the morning.”
Back to square one: the IPR
After this period of reflection to identify his advantages, James decided to return to his original purpose for studying law: integrating biology and law and contributing to IPR. However, when he returned to America, the economy was in a recession and law firms were firing employees. He had almost no chance to find a job. It put him in an awkward position. He still had an outstanding student loan of USD 250,000 and was forced to live on a credit card for half a year. With the help of a head-hunter, he finally got an opportunity to have a job interview with an IPR firm LYON & LYON. However, when the interviewers learned of his experience, they had doubts about his work stability. James talked with the interviewers sincerely about his experience and down-to-earth attitude. In addition to his educational background, this firm finally decided to give him a chance.
At the beginning of 2002, James became an associate at this firm. Once again, he had to start from zero. During this period, many law firms attached more importance to IPR and a group of the firm James worked in merged with Perkins Coie LLP. In the early years, James continued to offer lectures and published articles. At the end of 2006, James became a partner at Perkins Coie LLP. It took him 5 years to become a partner at that law firm, a feat which would normally take others 8-9 years.
James believed that IPR in China would be very promising. Therefore, he returned to Shanghai in 2006 and established Perkins Coie’s office in the Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park. He and his partners believed that the IPR protection consciousness of the people in Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang was better, but that they needed more IPR protection methods. In 2007, as he discovered that new policies could influence IPR protection a great deal, he decided to re-establish an office in Beijing, located in the Shangdi district. As he just wanted to do things in a down-to-earth manner, he didn’t establish the two offices in Beijing and Shanghai’s central business district. He also chose his employees in a strict way by requiring dual languages, residency in at least two countries, and combined degrees. Although there are 1.3 billion people in China, seldom is there anyone who can reach this standard. Nevertheless, he would rather choose to wait for someone suitable.
When discussing his goals and the development direction of Perkins Coie, James said: “Our business in China is a long-term investment. The IPR business in China is increasing gradually, including IPR application and lawsuit, both by foreign companies in China and native Chinese companies. We hope to protect more independent innovative companies, if not, the value of our protection will not be obvious. In China, many machinery and computer companies are able to go overseas for business and have developed faster than the biological industry. When more businesses have chances to develop in the overseas market, then more global IPR protection will be needed.” This superior consciousness makes him a front-runner in IPR protection.
However, despite his superior insight, many Chinese companies could not accept his ideas, which led to several obstacles when he tried to develop the Chinese market. In his lectures and suggestions to some Chinese companies, he emphasized that companies should have their own IPR department or cooperate with professional IPR law firms. He said: “This concept is somewhat abstract, but when companies encounter IPR problems, the function of an IPR department or IPR law firms will be obvious. For instance, if patents are infringed or trade secrets are misappropriated, the IPR department would have done some protection work in advance. The likelihood of winning the case will be improved. The most important work is preparing fully when you apply for the patent right in order to avoid problems caused by different application procedures and rules in different counties. For example, the applicant-inventors of patents are different in America and China. In America only one inventor is permitted, otherwise the patent will be found to be invalid. However, in China, if applicant-inventors are not familiar with this rule, their patent will easily determined invalid when enters American market. So when you protect IPR, we’d better infer what we should from every possible result. Besides, many customers who have IPR protection demands are hard for us to find when many companies have no way to find a suitable IPR firm and some IPR firms cannot find such companies. Therefore, it will take a long time to improve the IPR market in China.” To James, this process is no doubt another new challenge.
By Li Wei, China IP
(Translated by Li Wei)
