Chris Hoejae Ryu is a senior associate at NKL Law and focuses on trademark prosecution.

Chris was in-house legal counsel for Hyundai Motor Group handling various IP matters for a decade.

His major achievements include a litigation case (Kia Motors Corporation v. Allstate Insurance Company) in the Central District of California. The case was appealed by Allstate Insurance Company, but was affirmed by the Ninth Circuit.

He also managed approximately 10,000 Hyundai Trademarks including, especially the house mark, and other technology marks such as N brand, and Smartsense throughout the world.

He had an extensive negotiation experience with various OEMs including BMW, Benz, and Nissan with regards to trademark co-existence agreements.

At Hyundai, Chris also managed Patent Litigation involving a hybrid system, blind-spot detection system, occupant classification system, and adaptive smart cruise control system.

He was assigned to a group in the IP Legal team where he reviewed and analyzed patents-in-suit to assess the strengths and weaknesses of cases. Based on his assessment, he managed invalidation proceedings in the USPTO, EPO, and German Patent Court.

Before joining Hyundai, he worked at Lee International IP & Law Group and Paul Hastings LLP. At Lee International, he focused on outgoing practices, preparing patent applications to be filed with the USPTO. Also, he drafted responses to office actions for a major Japanese semiconductor company.