Yves (Yao-Hui) Chang

What has been your biggest professional challenge in the last 12 months, and how did you overcome it?

Since covid-19 had severe negative effects on the global economy, inflation is a serious issue. Both the firm and our clients are facing higher operating costs. While it is necessary to maintain these operations, unilaterally increasing service fees is difficult for clients to accept. Therefore, we have implemented a more balanced approach. For example, if we evaluate that a case has higher profits, the service fee will not be increased; if we evaluate that the case has lower profits, the service fee will be slightly increased. As a result, not only are our operations getting better and better, but we also maintain good relationships with our clients.

In addition to its home base of Taiwan, your firm operates an office in the United States. What is the biggest challenge in protecting brands across these diverse jurisdictions?

In the United States, clients are generally less familiar with Taiwanese firms. Due to this, they are less likely to trust Taiwanese firms to handle US cases. However, Li & Cai has a branch office in Washington DC and applications are translated, drafted, edited and proofed by American lawyers and certified patent attorneys. The follow-up responses are provided by Li & Cai’s professionals in the United States to facilitate discussions and communication with US patent examiners – customer rights are thus protected by virtue of a one-stop service. Therefore, our firm’s US office has indeed assisted many global clients in applying for US patents and many US patents are approved. Li & Cai Intellectual Property Office provides clients with the most professional and all-round VIP exclusive service and we are embracing more opportunities to serve global clients.

IP firms globally are exploring how AI tools can benefit their practice. What advice do you have for those trying to incorporate this rapidly evolving technology into their work?

The core of patent service is a combination of technology and law. Even though patent specifications have a fixed format, patent engineers should fully understand both the technology and relevant laws to ensure the quality of the specification. Perhaps AI tools can assist in the preliminary writing of the patent specification, but in the end, the final confirmation must be done by humans.

Further, AI tools may be quite beneficial for searching prior cases before filing a patent application, which would help us to have a more comprehensive plan when it comes to writing the specification. Therefore, practitioners must also pay attention to the application of AI tools in drafting patent specifications and combine these with their own rich experience to complete the task.

How do you stay abreast of all the latest developments in the electrical engineering space, especially with the pace of developing technologies?

In the field of electrical engineering, my expertise is power electronics and control circuits. From a patent perspective, the technical scope that I cover involves all electrical-related fields. While we are not professional R&D personnel, we still need to have a broad understanding of basic technical concepts. Therefore, we pay special attention to industry information that is reported in various financial news, such as the fields of wind-power generation, electric vehicle battery charging and discharging and AI intelligence control.

Nowadays, it is convenient to gain an initial understanding of the concepts of new technologies from the internet, and then assist in searching the relevant prior case information in the patent databases of various jurisdictions. In this way, we can keep up with the ever-changing pace of technological developments.

What does inspiring leadership look like at the Li & Cai Intellectual Property Office, and how has this evolved over the last decade?

An inspiring leader aligns their work with the values of their team. At Li & Cai Intellectual Property Office, the most inspirational leaders effectively communicate their goals to their teams and help each individual find more value in their work by focusing on their strengths and encouraging them. Therefore, the leadership is genuine, and we are able to provides the most reliable IP rights services with “聯 (linked in professionalism), 心 (passionate in service), 誠 (faith in quality) and 意 (intent on providing sense of security)".