“It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there.” Bob Dylan, from Not Dark Yet In the 1990s, I represented a number of international fishing and timber and mining companies that did business with Russia. This was not so long after the fall of the Soviet Union and there were a bunch of large Russian companies
In China Factories Are Exporting Lower Prices Around the World, Bloomberg News wrote this week about something our internmational manufacturing lawyers have been seeing: Desperate Chinese factories are lowering their prices. Are all Chinese factories desperate? Absolutely not. Are all Chinese factories lowering their prices? Near as we can tell, a great many are, especially
The title above is mostly facetious. Truth is a ton of companies claim to want to move their manufacturing out of China but — to their own detriment — have not done so and are not doing enough to do so. I know this because our international manufacturing lawyers constantly speak with companies in this
1. Western Companies Want to Leave China and Are Leaving China The Wall Street Journal ran a front page article last week on American companies seeking to reduce their exposure to China. This article, Trade Deal Alone Won’t Fix Strained U.S.-China Business Relations, reinforces what we have been saying for months about how American and
File for Your China Trademark in China, not Madrid Whenever clients ask about China trademark registration through the Madrid System, my advice is pretty straightforward: filing directly with the Chinese Trademark Office (CTMO) is almost always the smarter choice. China’s Trademark System China’s trademark system is a bit of a maze—complex, idiosyncratic, and highly regimented.
An article titled, Kickstarter Prototype to Production: $100K is not Enough, is getting a lot of play on Linkedin among the China manufacturing crowd, with those I know who know China manufacturing agreeing with it. The article provides compelling reasons why getting an electronics product manufactured in China will nearly always require more than $100,000.
Creating a clear manufacturing agreement can alleviate the various legal issues inherent in manufacturing overseas. here are three reasons why it makes sense to have a contract with your manufacturer and only one of those reasons is enforceability in court.
The purpose of a trademark, from both a legal and branding perspective, is to identify the source of goods. It follows, therefore, that the best trademarks are both memorable and distinctive. You want people to associate your brand with your company, not confuse your brand with other brands. You also want to make sure your
We explain why it can be so difficult to leave China and the various precautions you need to take if you are looking to get out.
Not surprisingly, our China lawyers are seeing a massive increase in foreign companies seeking to reduce or eliminate their China ties. Many are seeking to terminate their relationship with their Chinese suppliers and move production elsewhere (so far, it’s been mostly to Vietnam, Taiwan, Poland, Thailand, Mexico, Brazil, India and Malaysia). The other day I
