Finnegan: IP-Only, With Offices That Follow the Cases / 飞翰（Finnegan）：只做知识产权，办公室跟着案子走

On September 2, 2026, Finnegan opened its eleventh office, in Dallas. It is the firm’s first in Texas, and its first new office anywhere in the four years since Munich. Managing partner James Barney says close to one-third of the firm’s litigation is now fought in Texas courts.

2026 年 9 月 2 日，飞翰在达拉斯开了第 11 个办公室。这是它在得克萨斯州的第一家，也是慕尼黑之后四年里新设的第一个。管理合伙人 James Barney 说，所里近三分之一的诉讼在德州法院打。

Doing only intellectual property, and opening offices where the cases are densest, is simply following the business. What is harder to explain is the Shanghai office: opened in 2008, yet the cases it handles are all in the United States.

只做知识产权，把办公室开在案子最密的地方，是顺着生意走。不好解释的是上海那一间：2008 年设点，要接的案子却都在美国。

Three name changes

名字改了三回

Finnegan’s earliest name was Finnegan & Henderson. In March 1965, Marc Finnegan and Douglas Henderson opened it on the twelfth floor of 815 Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C.; from the first day, it did nothing but intellectual property. Over the next fourteen years the name changed as partners came and went: Farabow joined in 1968, Garrett in 1973, and in 1979, when a founder died, Don Dunner’s name was added. Three name changes, and the center of the business never moved.

飞翰最早的名字是 Finnegan & Henderson。1965 年 3 月，Marc Finnegan 与 Douglas Henderson 在华盛顿康涅狄格大道 815 号的 12 层把它开起来，业务从第一天起只有知识产权。此后十四年，名字随合伙人进出而改：1968 年加进 Farabow，1973 年加进 Garrett，1979 年创始人去世，Don Dunner 的名字补上。改了三回名字，业务的重心没挪过。

The first office to take it out of Washington was Tokyo, in 1988. It became one of the earlier patent firms to have a lawyer actively practicing in Japan as a registered foreign-law attorney, and the European and Asian offices followed one by one.

第一次让它离开华盛顿的是 1988 年的东京办公室。它成为较早以外国法事务律师身份在日本执业的专利所之一，此后欧洲与亚洲的点陆续开出。

The arithmetic of doing one thing

只做一件事的账

As of 2026, Finnegan has eleven offices. Not many offices, but heavy work: roughly 3,500 patent applications filed each year at the patent offices of the United States, Europe and the United Kingdom; more than 25,000 trademark applications and registrations handled; close to 200 appeals argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The firm says more than ninety of its attorneys work exclusively on ITC Section 337 investigations.

至 2026 年，飞翰有 11 个办公室。办公室不算多，业务做得重：一年在美国、欧洲与英国的专利局提交约 3,500 件专利申请，代理的商标申请与注册超过 25,000 件，办过近 200 件向美国联邦巡回上诉法院的上诉。所里称，专做 ITC 的 337 调查的律师有九十余名。

Its practice is not sliced by industry but by procedure: filing and prosecution, district-court litigation, Section 337 investigations, inter partes review at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, and on up to Federal Circuit appeals. Slicing by procedure lets the same team carry a case from filing through appeal; the price is that only scale can amortize it — enough people within a single procedure to take several matters at once.

它的业务不是按行业切的，是按程序切的：申请与确权、地方法院诉讼、337 调查、专利审判与上诉委员会的双方复审、再到联邦巡回法院的上诉。按程序切的好处是同一批人能从立案用到上诉；代价是要靠规模摊薄，一个程序上养得起足够多的人，才敢同时接几单。

Section 337 is a fixed-form procedure: within 45 days of institution a target date for conclusion is set, followed by discovery, the hearing, the administrative law judge’s initial determination, Commission review, the final determination, and Presidential review. Every step has a hard deadline. Respondents must have the technical facts, sales data and prior art ready between those deadlines, so the work splits in two: half in the Washington courtroom, half in the client’s factories and document piles.

337 是一条结构固定的程序：立案后 45 天内定下结案目标日，证据开示、开庭、行政法官初裁、委员会复审、终裁，再到总统审查。每一步都有硬时点，被告要在这些时点之间把技术事实、销售数据与现有技术备齐，活因此分成两半：一半在华盛顿的法庭里，一半在客户的工厂和文件堆里。

The Shanghai half

上海那一半

Finnegan’s Shanghai office was established in 2008. Article 15 of the Regulation on the Administration of Representative Offices of Foreign Law Firms (State Council Order No. 338, revised 2024) draws a hard line: a representative office may handle only the legal affairs of the country where its lawyers are licensed to practice, and advise on that country’s law; it may not conduct Chinese legal affairs. Article 16 adds that it may not employ Chinese-licensed lawyers.

飞翰的上海办公室设于 2008 年。《外国律师事务所驻华代表机构管理条例》（国务院令第 338 号，2024 年修订）第十五条把这类代表处的业务划得很死：只能办理该所律师已获准执业国家的法律事务、提供该国法律的咨询，不得从事中国法律事务；第十六条又规定不得聘用中国执业律师。

So the office cannot touch Chinese law. What it does is the American half: taking apart accused products with the client, hunting for prior art, preparing witnesses, and reshaping technical facts into the form an American trial needs. Matters on the Chinese side are delegated to Chinese law firms; anything requiring a Chinese-law judgment goes out wholesale, people and case together — that delegation is set out in items (3) and (4) of Article 15.

所以这间办公室碰不了中国法，它做的是美国那一半：跟客户一起拆开被诉产品、找现有技术、准备证人，把技术事实整理成美国庭审要的形状。中国那一侧的事务，由它委托中国律师事务所办理，需要中国法判断的部分连人带案一并交出去；这层委托关系由第十五条第（三）项、第（四）项写明。

The process played out in full in the Innoscience case. In July 2024, Infineon filed a complaint at the U.S. International Trade Commission over gallium-nitride power devices, accusing Innoscience of infringing four U.S. patents, Investigation No. 337-TA-1414.

这条工序在英诺赛科案上完整走了一遍。2024 年 7 月，英飞凌就氮化镓功率器件向美国国际贸易委员会提出申诉，指控英诺赛科侵犯四项美国专利，案号 337-TA-1414。

Finnegan did not merely defend. Alongside non-infringement and invalidity arguments, it pushed the client to redesign the product. The initial determination of December 2, 2025 found no infringement of one of the patents and agreed to adjudicate the redesigned product as well; the final determination of May 2026 confirmed that the current products fall outside the scope of U.S. Patent No. 9,899,481, four other claims were held invalid, and Infineon’s claim under U.S. Patent No. 9,070,755 failed as well. The firm says a Shanghai attorney handled the investigation, witness examination, technical analysis and hearing work on the case.

飞翰接手后没有只做抗辩，一边主张不侵权与专利无效，一边推动客户改产品。2025 年 12 月 2 日的初裁认定英诺赛科未侵犯其中一项专利，并同意把重新设计后的产品一并裁决；2026 年 5 月的终裁确认现行产品不落入第 9,899,481 号专利的范围，另外四项权利要求被认定无效，英飞凌依第 9,070,755 号专利提出的主张亦未获支持。该所公告说，一名上海律师在案中承担调查取证、证人质询、技术分析与庭审的工作。

An earlier matter was 337-TA-1114 in 2018: forty companies were named as respondents, mostly Chinese LED display makers, and Finnegan represented five of them. Ningling Wang, managing partner of the firm’s Shanghai office, later described that case as sitting with each client to understand the accused products and find stronger evidence, fighting on both the non-infringement and invalidity fronts.

更早的一单是 2018 年的 337-TA-1114。40 家企业被列为应诉方，其中多为中国的 LED 显示企业，飞翰代理五家。该所上海办公室管理合伙人王宁玲后来谈这个案子，重点放在跟每一家客户一起把被诉产品弄清楚、找出更有力的证据，从不侵权与专利无效两条线上打。

Eight years on, the products have changed from LED displays to gallium-nitride power devices. The method has not.

八年过去，产品从 LED 显示屏换成氮化镓功率器件，这套做法没有变。

The full-service firms in the same ring

同场的综合所

On the Section 337 road, Finnegan faces not only boutiques like itself. The 2026 Chambers USA guide places it in Band 4 of International Trade: Intellectual Property (Section 337), alongside Morrison Foerster and O’Melveny & Myers. These are full-service firms, able to offer antitrust, trade remedies and corporate work all in one place.

337 这条路上，飞翰面对的不只是同类小所。2026 年 Chambers USA 的 International Trade: Intellectual Property (Section 337) 一档给它 Band 4，与 Morrison Foerster、O’Melveny & Myers 同档。这些是综合所，反垄断、贸易救济与公司业务都能一并提供。

Doing only IP is both the source of its efficiency and the boundary of it. Adjacent matters are not untouched, but they all sit on the same IP line of business: advertising, trade secrets, IP-related antitrust, IP clauses in government contracts. Anti-dumping duties and corporate M&A still require someone else in the same dispute. If Chinese companies continue to feature heavily on Section 337 respondent lists, the Shanghai office will only have more work; but the procedure always sits in Washington and Texas, and both the fees it collects and the role it plays are framed by where the procedure is.

只做知识产权是它效率的来源，也是它的边界。相邻的事务它并非不碰，但都挂在知识产权这一根线上：广告、营业秘密、与知识产权相关的垄断、政府合同里的知识产权条款。反倾销税率、公司并购这类，同一场纠纷里客户仍要另找人。若 337 的被告名单里中国企业依旧密集，上海这间办公室要接的活只会更多；但程序始终在华盛顿与德州那边，它收的费用与承担的角色，都被程序所在的地方框住。

Where the procedure is, there the work is

工序在哪，工作在哪

The division of labor in cross-border IP service is not by country but by procedure. Section 337’s rules, deadlines and hearing rhythm are all American; the accused products, engineers and sales records sit on the client’s side. The firms that can join the two ends do not rely on a large office in the client’s country; they split one procedure into two halves and make both ends deliver on the American clock. The finer the split, the more time the client saves before discovery begins — no need to ship materials to the other hemisphere before sorting can start.

跨境知识产权服务的分工，不是按国家分的，是按程序分的。337 的规则、时限与审理节奏都在美国，被诉产品、工程师与销售记录在客户这一端。能把两头接起来的所，靠的不是在客户所在国设一间多大的办公室，而是把同一道工序拆成两段，让两端都按美国程序的时限交活。这一段拆得越细，客户在证据开示开始前能省下的时间越多，不必先把材料运到另一半球再开始整理。

Finnegan’s Shanghai representative office does only the American half, and the reason lies here. The line the rules draw is clean: the foreign-law side can be done; the Chinese-law side cannot even employ a licensed lawyer.

飞翰的上海代表处只做美国那一半，原因就在这里。规则的划线方式很干脆：外国法这一侧可以办，中国法这一侧连执业律师都不能聘。

The arrangement has a price. When the host country’s rules change, it can supply information but cannot speak for the client in local courts; once the center of a dispute shifts from the American procedure to the local one, it can only stand aside.

这份安排有代价。所在国的规则变了，它只能提供信息，不能在当地法院里替客户说话；一旦争议的重心从美国程序移到当地程序，它就只能站在旁边。

To gauge whether a foreign firm like Finnegan is useful in the client’s country, you need not measure it by the size of its office. Look at whether it can turn the preparation on this end into evidence that can be submitted on that end. That is the reason it has stayed eighteen years — and that is its ceiling.

判断飞翰这样的外资所在客户所在国有没有用，不必看办公室的层数。看它能不能把这一端的准备，变成那一端可以提交的证据。这是它在那里待十八年的理由，也是它的天花板。