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Ruixue Ran

Ruixue Ran is the managing partner of Covington’s Beijing office and a member of Patent Litigation Practice. She specializes in U.S. Section 337 investigations (“ITC practice”) and intellectual property litigation (“IP litigation”). Her practice has involved cases spanning a wide range of claims, including patent, trade secrets, trademark, and other types of unfair competition.

A pioneer ITC practitioner in China, Ruixue is among the few lawyers who have consistently handled Section 337 cases on behalf of Chinese companies over the years and has substantial experience in representing Chinese companies in high-stakes IP litigation before the ITC and U.S. courts. Her representative cases include the historic litigation victory for Baosteel and China’s steel industry in all three claims of the Section 337 Steel case  (Inv. No. 337-TA-1002). She further serves as coordinating counsel for Chinese companies’ complex IP litigations in multiple jurisdictions, including but not limited to the U.S., EU, and China.

In addition, she helps multinational clients navigate cross-border IP litigations involving China and coordinates legal proceedings outside of China with overall global IP strategy. With integrated litigation experience in China and U.S., she has succeeded in resolving international companies’ high profile disputes in China.

Ruixue's successful representation of clients has drawn upon her rich work experience in both U.S. and Chinese law firms, U.S. and Chinese companies, and the Chinese government, as well as her in-depth understanding of the hi-tech and manufacturing sectors.

Asian Legal Business named her one of the “Top 15 Female Lawyers in China” in 2015 and one of the “Top 15 IP Lawyers in China” in 2016. China Law & Practice named her the IP Lawyer of the Year in 2018. IAM Patent 1000 named her a “leading patent individual” (2022).

Contact:Read more about Ruixue RanEmail

In April 2018, China released its nationwide automatic vehicle road testing rules, the Intelligent Internet-connected Vehicles Road Test Administrative Rules (for Trial Implementation) (the “National Rules”), which took effect on May 1, 2018. “Intelligent Internet-connected vehicles,” as defined under the National Rules, are commonly referred to as “intelligent vehicles” or “autonomous vehicles,” which involve a system of advanced sensors, controllers, actuators, etc. that may ultimately become a substitute for human drivers. The National Rules governs three categories of autonomous vehicles depending on the level of automation and human interaction required, i.e., conditional automation, high-level automation and full automation.

Prior to the release of the national Rules, selected Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Baoding and Chongqing had already implemented their own respective local road test rules for autonomous vehicles, and Shenzhen’s local proposals were at public consultation phase. The National Rules are largely consistent with the already existing various local rules, and provide an example for additional local governments to formulate their own detailed implementation rules.
Continue Reading IoT Update: China Releases National Automatic Vehicle Road Testing Rules

At the end of 2017, China’s Communist Party Central Committee and the State Council jointly circulated an Action Plan for Promoting Scale Deployment of Internet Protocol Version 6(IPv6)(“Plan”), and set detailed targets and steps for the next few years, aiming full transition to IPv6 by 2025.

According to the Plan, China is aiming to establish the world’s largest commercial network deploying IPv6, and formulate a next generation internet technical system and industrial ecosystem with independent intellectual property rights, within five to ten years. The target numbers of active users for the proposed IPv6 are 200 million by the end of 2018 and 500 million by the end of 2020, accounting for more than 20% and 50% of internet users in China, respectively. Finally, China is aiming to have the largest IPv6 network in the world by the end of 2025, in terms of network scale, quantity of users, and network traffic scale.

China is in urgent need of a more developed IPv6 network because IP addresses originating from the existing IPv4 network are nearly exhausted, and will be unable to meet the fast development of internet industry, including mobile internet, IoT, big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence. According to publicly available statistics, each Chinese internet user was allocated only 0.45 IPv4 address, which is not only insufficient for actual needs, but also leads to cybersecurity problems. By generating IP addresses consisting of 128 bits (instead of 32 bits under IPv4), the number of IPv6 addresses enormously expanded, allowing for an almost unlimited number of appliances in China being connected to the internet.Continue Reading Covington Internet of Things Update: China Strengthens IPv6 Deployment

In 2017, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), China’s telecom regulator and industrial policy maker, issued the Circular on Comprehensively Advancing the Construction and Development of Mobile Internet of Things (NB-IoT) (MIIT Circular [2017] No. 351, the “Circular”), which sets out the policy goals and plans for NB-IoT development in China and concrete steps in achieving them. NB-IoT is a form of Low-Power WAN (LPWAN) technology dependent on basic telecom carriers’ cellular networks using licensed frequencies.

Highlighting the advantages of mobile IoT (NB-IoT), namely, wide coverage, large amount of connections and low power consumption, the Circular stresses the importance of stepping up the construction of NB-IoT infrastructure, development of related applications, advancing the deployment of NB-IoT networks, and general promotion of innovation in this area in China.
Continue Reading Covington Internet of Things Update: China’s regulatory environment steps up for Low-Power WAN IoT deployment