Weisun Rao, Ph.D. - Managing Partner

For over 20 years, Dr. Rao has assisted clients developing, monetizing and enforcing their global intellectual property (IP) portfolios and growing business on the strength of their IP. He is experienced in drafting and prosecuting patent applications throughout the world, and performing patentability and freedom-to-operate searches and analysis. He regularly conducts IP due diligence and renders opinions as part of venture transactions, mergers and acquisitions, licensing transactions, and collaborations; and has extensive experience in drafting and negotiating licensing agreements, co-development and commercialization agreements, material transfer agreements, clinical trial agreements, among others.

Dr. Rao also regularly represents issuers or sponsors in initial public offerings on NASDAQ, the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong and Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Aligning clients’ IP strategies with business objectives, he provides pragmatic solutions to sophisticated legal issues and has successfully assisted clients minimizing risks and maximizing interest. He has served clients in industries spanning life sciences (pharmaceutical, biotechnology, nutraceutical, and medical devices), electronics, consumer goods, industrial chemicals, specialty materials, and financial services. His representative clients include private and public companies of various sizes, entrepreneurs, angel investors, venture capital and private equity firms, investment banks, universities, and research institutes in North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and South Africa. 

Bar Membership

* State Bar of Illinois 

* State Bar of Michigan

* District of Columbia Bar

* United States Patent and Trademark Office

Education

* The Ohio State University College of Law (J.D., 2005)

* The University of Akron (Ph.D. in Chemistry, 1998)

* Jilin University (B.S. in Chemistry, 1994)

Ms. Chen focuses her practice on patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, and business matters, with an emphasis on patent and trademark applications, IP due diligence, IP management, and IP licensing agreements. 

She provides strategic guidance and assistance on patent and trademark prosecution, domestic and worldwide portfolio management, IP licensing, disputes, and enforcement. Additionally, she handles due diligence investigations; prepares non-disclosure, transfer, and business agreements; and provides patentability, validity, infringement, and freedom-to-operate assessments. She also represents companies and investors in various technology transactions and M&A deals. She is experienced in handling both legal and business needs in the United States and China, and regularly works with law firms overseas to arrange for filing and prosecuting patent and trademark applications throughout the world. 

She provides practical, business-oriented strategies and solutions to her clients, which include a variety of companies, research institutes, and investors in medical device, life science, pharmaceutical, chemical, engineering, and software industries.

Bar Membership

* State Bar of Illinois 

* United States Patent and Trademark Office

Education

* Chicago-Kent College of Law (J.D., 2013)

* Indiana University School of Law – Bloomington (LL.M., 2009)

* Tianjin University (B.Eng. in  Biomedical Engineering & LL.B, 2008) 

Leveraging his years of high-stake intellectual property (IP) litigation experience across two international law firms, Alex leads Venture Partner’s IP litigation practice in matters involving patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets. Alex regularly advises clients regarding procurement of IP rights, portfolio management and enforcement, and infringement risk assessment and mitigation. Alex also has extensive experience in IP and technology related transactions including conducting due diligence analysis and negotiating IP/technology transfer and/or license agreements.

Alex has represented foreign and US clients in all stages of offensive and defensive IP litigations involving a variety of technologies and IP rights in both the federal courts and the International Trade Commission. Alex has firsthand experience throughout the litigation cycle, including conducting pre-suit investigations and due diligence, drafting and responding to pleadings and discovery requests, managing complex fact and expert discovery and related motion practices, drafting and responding to dispositive motions, preparing witnesses for depositions and trial, taking and defending depositions and examining witnesses at trial, and post-trial briefing.

Alex also has extensive experience counseling clients on IP and technology licensing and transfer, open-source software license and compliance, and data security and privacy issues in large scale mergers and acquisitions as well as standalone IP/technology-focused commercial transactions. As an inhouse counsel of the fastest growing SaaS companies in the world, Alex negotiated and closed transactions with a wide range of customers including global Fortunate 500 companies, state and local government agencies, higher education institutions, and companies in highly regulated industries such as banking, finance and healthcare as well as public utility.

Bar Membership

* State of Illinois

* District of Columbia Bar

* State of Washington (inactive)

* United States Patent and Trademark

Office

Education

* University of Minnesota Law School, J.D., 2016

* Peking University, Juris Master, 2013

* Harbin Institute of Technology, B. Eng.,
2010 (Mechanical Engineering) 

Ms. Zhao focuses her practice in the area of corporate law, with an emphasis on cross-border transactions.

Ms. Zhao's law career is informed by her experiences in both in-house legal department and private practice. Her recent experience includes being a corporate counsel at a leading worldwide manufacturer and provider of medical technologies, working closely with company executives and corporate development teams in structuring, managing and implementing a variety of strategic corporate transactions, including domestic and international mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and strategic investments. Before her in-house position, Ms. Zhao had worked as a corporate attorney in reputable national law firms where she advised U.S. and international corporations and investors on transactional matters including mergers and acquisitions, cross-border deals, joint ventures, strategic entity formation and business planning, issuances of equity and debt, and other contractual matters. 

Ms. Zhao regularly works with multidisciplinary cross-border teams and is effective at coordinating large teams of attorneys and business advisors to assist clients in structuring, implementing, and closing global transactions. In addition to being a skilled practitioner, Jing is also a prolific writer and has authored numerous legal expert articles published by Law360.

Bar Membership

* State Bar of Illinois 

* State Bar of Arkansas

Education

* Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law (Tax LL.M. with Honors, 2018)

* University of Arkansas School of Law (J.D. with Honors, 2015)

Ms. Liu has been a corporate and international business lawyer for more than ten years, with extensive experience in both international and corporate legal matters.  Before starting her own practice, Ms. Liu worked with medium-large sized international law firms in China and the U.S. Her practice includes cross-border investments, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, licensing, financing, commercial contracting, corporate governance and general corporate matters. She has assisted a broad range of businesses from small startups to multinational corporations and non-profit organizations in various aspects of legal issues and business matters. 

Ms. Liu was a co-founder of an e-commerce startup. She also worked with NGOs, gave speeches in Chinese universities and published articles against illegal international timber trade and spent a month working and living with a Papua New Guinea tribe in 2006. Her pro bono work in PNG was made into a documentary film and reported in the Chinese media. She also worked as a volunteer in New Orleans for one week in 2009 to help rebuild communities and support grassroots efforts for improving infrastructure.

Bar Membership

* State Bar of Illinois 

* State Bar of New York

Education

* Chicago-Kent College of Law (LL.M. with honors, 2008)

* Peking University (LL.B., 1999)

Dr. Tang’s practice includes patent prosecution and strategic intellectual property portfolio management for pharmaceutical, biotechnology and life science clients.

Dr. Tang’s practice focuses on patent prosecution, counseling on patent infringement, validity and licensing issues, management of patent and other intellectual property assets, intellectual property due diligence studies and related counseling for investors.

Prior to law school, Dr. Tang  earned his Ph.D. at Indiana University School of Medicine, where he studied the molecular mechanism of congenital heart defects by creating and studying transgenic mouse models that simulate human heart defects. He then worked at the same institute as a post-doctoral research fellow focusing on making viral-based gene transfer more efficient. 

Bar Membership

* State Bar of Illinois

* U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Education

* Chicago-Kent College of Law (J.D., 2014)

* Indiana University (Ph.D. in Biotechnology & Molecular Biology, 2009)

* Chinese Academy of Sciences (M.S. in Genetics, 2002)

* Wuhan University (B.S. in Biology, 1999)