Personal description

Paul RANJARD is a retired French lawyer. He has been Partner to Wanhuida Intellectual Property since 2019.

Paul RANJARD graduated from the Paris Law School and obtained his License to practice as an attorney at law in 1968.

In 1972, he stayed for one year with Theodore Goddards & Co., a reputed firm of Solicitors in the City of London. He registered at the Bar of Paris in 1972 and, until 1980, practiced commercial litigation both as an assistant to several lawyers as well as within a firm specializing in litigation conducted before the Commercial Courts.

In 1981, he moved to Hong Kong and opened the local branch of a French law firm Sonier & Coblence. Back in Paris in 1982, he resumed his independent practice of litigator and joined Delile & Biet as a partner. In April 1986, Paul RANJARD participated in a comparative law seminar in Beijing, jointly organized by the Chinese Ministry of Justice and the Paris Bar, and afterwards returned to China every year, assisting French companies with their business ventures in China.

Mr. RANJARD moved to Beijing in September 1997, and opened the Representative Office of the French association Unifab, specializing in the protection of Intellectual Property. As a result, his practice in China evolved progressively towards Intellectual Property matters. After the creation of the European Chamber of Commerce in 2000, he has co-chaired the IP Working Group and has been actively involved in the drafting of the EUCCC IP Position Papers and the comments submitted by the Chamber concerning drafts of IP legislation. Throughout his time in Beijing, Paul RANJARD has cooperated with Wanhuida in field actions and academic research.

Paul RANJARD is an active speaker at academic seminars and international conferences. He is the co-author of “About Use, Bad faith and Well-known trademarks in the Context of the Fifth Amendment to the Trademark Law”, “Draft revision to Anti-unfair Competition Law - key points highlighted”, “Zhejiang High Court provides clarification on trade name confusion”, “Huaihai v Hairun - Chongqing court awards Rmb30 million in damages in infringement suit”, “TOMMY HILFIGER v TOMMY CROWN: ‘transformative use’ of registered trademark found to be infringing”, “Intellectual Property Rights protection: Where is China standing?” (The Legal 500, 2022), “CNIPA’s Criteria for Determination of General Trademark Violations: key points, concerns and missed opportunities”, “The consequences of (and uncertainty over) trademark invalidations in China”, “Two crocodiles before the Supreme People’s Court”, “Matters to be addressed in the future revision of China’s trade mark law” (Asialaw Leading Lawyers 2020), “Fourth revision of China’s Trademark Law” (IAM & WTR, China: Managing the IP Lifecycle 2019/2020), just to name a few.

In 2013, Paul RANJARD was elected member of the China Trademark Office Subcommittee of the Trademark Office Practices Committee (TOPC) of the International Trademark Association (INTA) for the 2014/15 term. He is a member of the INTA International Amicus Committee (2022/23 term) and of the Geographical Indications team of the association MARQUES.