The Trump Administration is claiming China’s government forces American companies to relinquish its IP to China. Having worked on hundreds of China transactions that involve IP, I view things rather differently. I have never been involved in a China transaction where it has been clear that the Chinese government has forced our client to relinquish
Though the Under Armour vs. Uncle Martian dispute at first seemed like just another story about a blatant Chinese ripoff, destined to be forgotten with the next month’s news cycle, it was back in the news recently with the report that Under Armour conclusively prevailed in its trademark infringement case against Tingfeilong Sporting Goods, the
American and European companies constantly come to my law firm’s China lawyers seeking to “shore up” their China IP protections. These are mostly companies that have been doing business in or with China for months or years and have now decided they are doing well enough in China to start paying to protect what they
Most Americans do not understand court corruption. Otherwise they would not so frequently say there is no point in bringing a lawsuit in such and such a court because it’s corrupt. Corruption influences (sometimes greatly) court cases, but neither as often nor as much as widely believed. When dealing with court corruption, one has to
Spring is coming to an end, but it’s not too late to conduct a little spring cleaning. First on the list: get your IP in order and register your trademarks in China. The following are 8 reasons to do so. 1. Because you are having branded goods manufactured in China, and you don’t want them
American and European companies that have their consumer products made in China regularly must contend counterfeits of their products showing up on Amazon. My law firm’s international IP lawyers frequently get inquiries from companies that sell their products on Amazon and have seen their sales plunge because they are having to compete with duplicate/counterfeit products
My law firm’s international licensing lawyers have been writing a slew of China technology licensing agreements lately. These deals usually come to us as China licensing deals. Sometimes they come to us as putative joint ventures, but after we explain the difficulties and costs in doing a joint venture, our clients seek to restructure their
In Netflix finally finds a way into China, CNN’s Sherisse Pham explains how “six months after admitting defeat in its bid to crack China, Netflix has found a way to tap into the vast market.” For years, Netflix was trying to set itself up in China. For years, Netflix was trying to set itself up
Our China lawyers regularly receive inquiries from companies (and other lawyers) asking if an email they have received from China is legit. The email usually goes something like this: Dear [owner of US trademark]: According to our trademark research team, the following mark has been published in the Chinese Trademark Gazette on [date]. We note
1. There’s no way to protect my brand in China against counterfeits, so there’s no reason to try. This is both false and self-defeating. China offers a number of ways to protect your IP. The first and most important step is to file a trademark application in China to cover your goods or services. This
