No More DIY Law, Please Have you ever made a major business or life decision based on advice from a friend, a blog, or a DIY guide, only to find out later that it was flawed? Last week provided me with three compelling examples of why lawyers are indispensable in making any legal decisions. In this
China Licensing Negotiations Our China lawyers have been increasingly drafting contracts for foreign companies licensing their brand names, concepts, or technologies for use in China. Historically, this type of licensing was primarily confined to the industrial sector. Nowadays, a significant portion of our work involves crafting licensing agreements for companies eager to tap into the
Should You Work for a Chinese Company? As lawyers, we spend a lot of time fielding good, bad, weird, interesting, deep, superficial, and all types of other questions from people. We’re generally expected to be oracle-level wizards, a lot like people are treating AI now. In this series, we’ll share some of these questions that
I recently discussed with a client what steps it should take to protect its trade secrets across the various countries where it manufactures products and conducts business. Although this client has been operating internationally for nearly a decade, it now faces the challenge of bringing its most valuable intellectual property into competitive, and sometimes risky,
The Update on the TikTok Ban In The Ticking Clock to a TikTok Stop, I discussed the TikTok ban bill then under consideration in the United States Congress. The bill aimed to address concerns over national security and data privacy, stemming from TikTok’s ownership by ByteDance, a Chinese company. Fast forward to today, and the bill
Navigating the Nuances When Working with Foreign Companies and Legal Professionals Way back in 2009, I wrote a blog post on the challenges and cultural differences I encountered while working with lawyers in Asia. At that time, my observations were primarily based on representing American companies entering Asian markets. Since then, this one post has
The Importance of Contracts in International Manufacturing Ten years ago, our international manufacturing lawyers often spent 10-20 minutes explaining the importance of having NNN Agreements and Manufacturing Agreements with Chinese manufacturers. And then another 10-20 minutes were spent explaining the need for a China trademark — even when NOT selling at all to China. We rarely
What Currency Should I Use in My China Contract? As lawyers, we spend a lot of time fielding good, bad, weird, interesting, deep, superficial, and all types of other questions from people. We’re generally expected to be oracle-level wizards, a lot like people are treating AI now. In this series, we’ll share some of these
Counterfeits in the U.S.A. Unfortunately, that’s not a parody of John Mellencamp’s classic song R.O.C.K in the U.S.A., but rather a growing problem. And your business needs to take action to mitigate the risks to its brands. For a long time, conversations about counterfeiting have focused on what happens overseas, not just in terms of
International Litigation As the number of global transactions continues to grow, the international litigators at my law firm have seen a rise in inquiries relating to litigation between domestic and international parties, from both companies and from domestic litigators When a dispute involves a foreign party, a host of special considerations come into play –
