Currently, the number one film in China is the smash hit Hello Mr. Billionaire (US$306M and counting). It’s a comedy about a hapless soccer player who stands to inherit 30 billion RMB, but only if he can spend 1 billion RMB in a month (albeit with a number of complicated conditions, like no gambling, donating
China wants foreign technology and it understands it must pay for it. This is not to say China IP licensing deals are not without their own brand of major and minor pitfalls. Proposed China licensing deals that involve the foreign company One of the risky things our China licensing lawyers constantly see are proposed China
Developing self driving cars is the centerpiece of the Chinese government’s plan to redesign its manufacturing and technology sector. The Chinese have coined the term Intelligent and Connected Vehicles (ICV) (智能网联汽车）as their technical term for the China version of what is an international race towards a difficult technical goal. The ICV is an ideal goal
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
My law firm writes more China NNN Agreements than any other contract. We have been drafting 5-15 of these a month for more than 15 years. These are basic and important agreements no matter what your industry. We write China NNN Agreements to protect against disclosure, competition, and circumvention. For more on what goes into
The standard story is that the Chinese government has decided to “corner” the world market for electric vehicles. The most expensive and important component for an electric vehicle (“EV”) is the battery pack. So the the logic goes that the first step in this plan is for Chinese companies to dominate production of EV batteries.
Our China IP lawyers have lately been seeing a steady increase in China design patent filings, as Western companies increasingly come to understand the need to be proactive in protecting their IP from China. We file most design patents to protect product designs, but some are filed for defensive purposes. The defensive design patents are
China does a lousy job policing bad-faith trademark registrations and that makes trademark squatting a profitable and low-risk activity in China. Those unfamiliar with Chinese trademark practice might think the problem is China’s trademark law. Not so. China’s Trademark Law has a number of provisions that could easily be invoked to combat trademark squatting, including
I did an interview the other day with GlobalAutoIndustry.com, on China IP Challenges for Automotive Suppliers, dealing mostly with automotive high-tech, which in most respects is no different from high tech generally. The below is a transcript of that interview. For anyone who has been living in a cave, the auto industry has changed, is
Your brand name and your product name and your logo are likely some of your company’s most valuable assets. Most companies realize this. Yet most companies do not realize how they put these things at risk by exploring doing business with China without FIRST applying for a China trademark. And in the past year or
