Fred leads Harris Sliwoski’s intellectual property practice and is the coordinator of the firm’s international team. Much of Fred’s practice consists of helping cannabis businesses protect their brands. He also works with entrepreneurs and companies entering the Web3 space, a new frontier for IP law. Prior to joining Harris Sliwoski, Fred worked overseas for more than a decade, in both government and private sector roles. Fred is a regular contributor to the award-winning China Law Blog and Canna Law Blog.
Fred began his career overseas as a U.S. consular officer in Guangzhou, China, where he advocated for fairer treatment of American companies and citizens in China and for stronger intellectual property rights enforcement. After entering the private sector, Fred worked at a Shanghai law firm as a foreign legal advisor and later joined one of the oldest American law firms in China, helping foreign companies navigate the Chinese legal environment. He also led the legal team at a Hong Kong-based brand protection consultancy, spending most of his time out in the field, protecting clients against counterfeiters and fraudsters in Greater China, Southeast Asia and Latin America.
In addition to his IP work, as a native Spanish speaker, Fred works closely with different Harris Sliwoski teams on Latin America and Spain matters. Fred also provides advice to cannabis industry participants and other businesses on import and export transactions.
Fred is an ardent supporter of FC Barcelona—and would be even in the absence of Catalan forebears who immigrated to Puerto Rico in the mid-1800s.
China and 14 other Asia-Pacific nations recently signed the world’s largest free trade deal, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). As discussed in Asia-Pacific RCEPonds to Trump’s Snub, the RCEP’s launch raises uncomfortable questions for Washington, though it is actually quite modest in terms of member commitments. That said, RCEP will usher in changes, and
George Santayana once said: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”? Although the line was not about Chinese trademark law, it might as well have been. We have been beating the drum for years about registering trademarks in China (see here and here for a representative sample), but every time I start
Our China IP team regularly oversees requests to Chinese websites to take down counterfeit products. The success rate on getting these products removed within a week or so is North of 99%. The following email (modified very slightly) crossed my computer the other day. It is from one of our China IP lawyers who does
As reported in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), Stanley Black & Decker has closed its Shenzhen factory, “[laying] off all of its 1,000 workers after 25 years of operations.” This, according to the SCMP, “reflects the changing business environment in the world’s second-biggest economy.” In reality, however, it highlights long-standing, ongoing China risks. Stanley
Yesterday I attended a USPTO webinar, How the U.S. government can help companies protect and enforce their IP in China. It was informative and I highly encourage anyone interested in IP protection in China to attend future webinars. Moreover, it brought back memories of my own stint in the government helping American companies protect their
Last week, the U.S. Department of Commerce approved our request to exclude a client’s steel imports from the Section 232 tariff. This exclusion will translate into 25% savings for our client when importing the steel products subject to the exclusion. What are Section 232 tariffs? With all the talk about “China tariffs” it is easy
Recently I had the opportunity to talk with Luis Alemañy, a Puerto Rican entrepreneur whose company, SJT Manufacturing, provides a real-life example of the opportunities present in Puerto Rico for companies looking to bring parts of their supply chains closer to North and/or Latin America. SJT is a contract manufacturer of high-precision sheet metal parts, based
Learn why registering your trademark in China is essential even for manufacturing-only operations. Discover how to navigate CNIPA rejections and protect your brand from squatters.
There is plenty that could be written about the plight of Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in Xinjiang, most of it negative. And with Xi Jinping declaring his Xinjiang policies “completely correct,” there is pretty much no room for hope things will improve (unless you view the complete sinification of Xinjiang as a desirable end
Our international IP lawyers love lists and the below is a list of the 12 things we most often recommend regarding China trademarks to our clients that do business in China and have at least one brand they care about. Most of these items apply with equal force to most other countries as well. 1.
