LE HOAI DUONG
B.Sc. (Mech. Eng.), LL.B, MIP (Franklin Pierce)
Founding Member, Managing Director

Duong is the firm’s Managing Director with over 30 years’ experience in the intellectual property profession.

He guides his clients through complicated trademark issues, including clearance advice, applications, oppositions, and cancellations before the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam (IP Vietnam), the USPTO and WIPO, as well as litigation. He has over 20 years’ experience of handling complex trademark disputes involving multi-jurisdictional litigation between the world’s largest companies, especially in the beer and materials industries. Duong successfully represented his clients in numerous landmark cases, including Adidas, Budweiser, Kohler, Manpower, Motorola, Sunkist, Superman, and The Boston Consulting Group, before the IP Vietnam and Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST).

Duong has particular expertise in patent filing and litigation in the mechanical engineering, materials and software fields. He also specializes in designs, having extensive experience in successfully establishing and enforcing design rights. Duong’s experience in both patents and designs at the IP Vietnam has led to long-standing relations with international clients, most notably Apple.

Duong is renowned for providing practical advice, relating to filing, opposition and enforcement strategies, in patents, designs and trademarks. Most of his time is spent representing the world’s leading companies, including Apple, Adidas, and The Boston Consulting Group Inc.

He is regularly invited to provide advice in complex intellectual property issues for the IP Vietnam and MOST.

US-educated and multilingual Le Hoai Duong is the cornerstone of the impressive group. His “professor-like knowledge” has earned him much-deserved veneration from peers. 

World Trademark Review 2017

Managing director Hoai Duong Le is especially strong on electronic and mechanical patent litigation and filings. Le is renowned among his peers for his “professional and highly reliable advice”.

Not just a filing shop, the ensemble [LÊ & LÊ] takes on litigation and licensing assignments, bringing about excellent results there, too. Synonymous with the success of the practice, Hoai Duong Le has advocated for top companies in boundary-pushing trademark litigations. Adept on the patent side, he is the ideal fit for those with diverse portfolios.

Born
Hanoi, 1960

Admitted
• Industrial Property Attorney, 1993
• Attorney-at-law of Hanoi Bar Association, 2003

Education
• B.Sc. (Mech. Eng.), Military Academy of Technologies, Vietnam, 1982
• Master of Intellectual Property, Franklin Pierce Law Center, U.S., 1998
• LL.B., Hanoi Law School, Vietnam, 2002

Languages
Vietnamese, English, French.

Professional Experience
• 1982-1986: Researcher at Institute for Military Technologies.
• 1986-1993: Design examiner, Deputy Director of Industrial Designs & Trademarks Department of the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam (IP Vietnam). 
• 1993-1996: Deputy Director of the Patent and Trademark Bureau, under the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
• 1997- 1998: Studied at Franklin Pierce Law Center (now University of New Hampshire School of Law, U.S.) under FULBRIGHT scholarship.
• November 1998: Founded LÊ & LÊ

Practice Areas
• All intellectual property areas
• Contract law

Intellectual Property Lecturer
• National University of Hanoi
• Judges Training School of Vietnam.

Contributing Author
• World Trademark Law Report
• Vietnam Supreme People's Court Review 

Awards
• Le Hoai Duong was ranked by the IAM Patent 1000 2023 and WTR 1000 2023 as a leading patent and trademark attorney, by the IPSTARS as a Trade Mark Star 2023, by WIPR 2023 as a leading IP practitioner in Vietnam in 2023.
• Le Hoai Duong has been recognized in the 2022 edition of IAM Patent 1000: The World’s Leading Patent Professionals 2022
• Le Hoai Duong has been named in Managing IP as IP Stars in 2021/2022, 2020/2021, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2015
• Le Hoai Duong was ranked gold in The World’s Leading Trademark Professionals 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014
• Le Hoai Duong was named by World Trademark Review as one of the World’s Leading Trademark Practitioners in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013.
• Le Hoai Duong was nominated by Managing Intellectual Property as one of the World's Leading Patent Law Practitioners 2007.