A conventional Western NDA often focuses on the wrong risks for China manufacturing. A properly drafted China NNN Agreement goes further by restricting competitive use, unauthorized disclosure, and circumvention—and by addressing the parties, forum, language, and remedies that matter if something goes wrong.
Looking to do business with a Chinese company? About to send a Chinese company some money? Want to know whether that Chinese company is worthy of your business and your trust? How do you do get information on a Chinese company when certain private investigatory work in China is illegal? Our clients often ask us to
1. We have no such list. Sorry. Pretty much every week, someone writes one of our international manufacturing lawyers to: a. Ask about a particular overseas manufacturer; b. Complain about a particular manufacturer and to ask us to tell our blog readers about this company or report them to such and such government or embassy
A successful product launch can give a Chinese factory, trademark squatter, or competitor information and leverage you cannot easily take back. Before going public, startups manufacturing in China should secure key IP, protect sensitive information, verify their factories, and lock down development, tooling, and production rights.
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
Everything China comes in waves and China trademark "theft" is no different. When we first started this blog back in 2006, we would get a call just about every week from someone wanting to sue a Chinese company blocking the company's product from leaving China. We hated those calls because most of the time our
Our China trademark lawyers are often asked about the difference between the Nice Classification system for trademarks and China’s trademark subclass system. They are related, but quite different. The Nice Classification system is an international classification of goods and services that separates all possible goods and services into 45 classes: 34 classes for goods and
Forming a WFOE in China and then operating that business in China is difficult and expensive. See e.g., Forming a China WFOE: Ten Things To Consider and See also Doing Business in China Without a WFOE: Will the Defendant Please Rise on why having a WFOE is a must if you will be doing business
When working on complex contract manufacturing agreements, most of our clients tell us their main goal is to protect their intellectual property. This is particularly true for designers of start-up products where much of of their IP consists of trade secrets and know-how that require a formal agreement with the manufacturer. However, as we work
Pre-application trademark searches and post-application notices from the China Trademark Office (CTMO) are increasingly revealing conflicts with existing trademark registrations and pending trademark applications. Given the vast number of trademarks being filed in China, this comes as no surprise. But a cited conflict, whether in a search or from the CTMO examiner, isn’t necessarily the
