An NNN Agreement protects sensitive information while you evaluate Chinese factories. After you select the manufacturer, a Manufacturing Agreement governs quality, delivery, tooling, IP, and remedies. Here is how the two contracts work together and when one agreement can do both jobs.
Startups cannot protect every trademark, patent, design, and trade secret everywhere at once. The smarter approach is to identify what the business cannot afford to lose, focus on the countries that matter most, and build an international IP strategy around revenue, manufacturing, expansion plans, and a realistic budget.
A buyer paid a Yiwu intermediary $147,000. Most of the goods never shipped. Here is why we told the buyer to skip the lawsuit and go to the police instead.
Why it makes sense to use an American lawyer who is fluent in Chinese to handle your China trademark filings.
Artwork can cross borders faster than the legal protections behind it. This guide explains how artists can protect ownership, control overseas production, register key rights, safeguard their names, and respond when galleries, manufacturers, licensees, or counterfeiters misuse their work.
China adopted a revised Trademark Law on June 26, 2026. The new law will take effect on January 1, 2027. Much of the commentary surrounding the revised law has focused on the statutory changes themselves. Foreign companies, however, should focus on what they need to do differently before the law takes effect. The fundamentals remain
Sinosure: The Complete Guide for Foreign Buyers What Sinosure is, what it can do, and how foreign companies should respond The letter arrives without warning. A collection agency outside Chicago or a law firm you have never heard of writes to say your company owes a Chinese manufacturer several hundred thousand dollars. The letter says
International Distribution Agreements: Beware the Eager Distributor In one matter my law firm handled, a manufacturer of industrial coatings signed an exclusive Southeast Asia distribution agreement with a distributor that looked ideal. It had regional warehousing, relevant sales experience, and a management team that sounded sophisticated from the first call. Eighteen months later, the manufacturer
Foreign Contractors and Distributors: Frequently Asked Questions Yesterday’s post explained why the overseas sales shortcut so often backfires: a company calls someone a contractor, agent, or distributor, but the relationship underneath does not match the label. This FAQ builds on that post. It answers the questions we most often hear from companies selling abroad without
Foreign Contractors and Distributors: The International Sales Shortcut That Often Backfires Many companies want foreign sales without a foreign footprint: no subsidiary, no payroll, no local employees, no leased office, no permanent commitment. That can be a sensible way to test a market. But for many businesses, that first move into international sales is also
