It goes without saying you should choose good business partners abroad. The kind of partner that doesn't like getting sued ... and hence doesn't give you reason to sue them. Partners that won't steal your IP. But just how can you know a partner is reliable before you do business with them and put them to the acid test?
The first step for drafting an international product sales agreement is to deal with the basic sales terms. The terms for customization and cooperative design can come later.
I was interviewed last year by as part of an ongoing interview series on strategy and innovation. The below is that interview [it is no longer online anywhere else]. Dan Harris is the founder of Harris Sliwoski, an international law firm with offices in Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, Phoenix New York, Barcelona, Madrid and Beijing.
I love to talk about what I call our "accidental exporter" clients. These are companies (mostly in the United States, but Europe too) who literally lucked out into becoming Asia exporters. And by "lucked out," I mean they were quietly going about their business when contacted out of the blue by someone in Asia (usually
China is virtually the sole supplier of rare earths to the world and it is heading towards that same position for polysilicon. The reasons are almost exclusively related to the peculiar way primary industry operates in China. What is occurring is an exchange with few benefits to either side. There are two areas of dispute
