China licensing agreement

China Licensing Agreements: The Extreme Basics

Licensing your technology to a company in China Licensing your technology to another company is fraught with risks. Licensing your technology to a company in China has its own additional challenges. The first thing you should do before licensing your technology to a Chinese company is to make sure you may legally do so under

China customs inspections

How to Register Your China Trademark with China Customs

Above all, protecting your trademark in China requires you register your trademark in China. But if you want to provide additional valuable protection for your trademark, you also should register your China trademark again with Chinese Customs. This additional registration is especially important for those exporting goods from China at risk of counterfeiting. Although there’s

Is it the shoes?

Don’t Be Like Mike: Register Your Trademarks in CHINESE

Michael Jordan just lost another China lawsuit in his ongoing effort to combat alleged trademark infringement in China. This lose highlights a point that must be familiar to even the most casual reader of this blog: Michael Jordan just lost another China lawsuit in his ongoing effort to combat alleged trademark infringement. This case, like

China and Motion Picture Copyright

China Motion Picture Copyrights

China joined WIPO (the World Intellectual Property Organization) in 1980 and it introduced its first copyright law in 1990. China adopted modern intellectual property laws as a condition of joining the WTO (the World Trade Organization) in 2001. 2001 China intellectual property laws amendments The 2001 amendments were the first round of modernization of China’s

China Consultant

China Consultant or All Knowing China Expert

China’s recently stepped up efforts to root out unregistered foreign businesses in China has caused a rash of China consultants to retain the China lawyers at my law firm. From our work in forming China WFOEs (wholly foreign owned entities) for these consultants, we have discovered that many China consultants are falling dangerously short in

China design Patents

China Design Patents

We have written a number of times about the need to register intellectual property in China with the appropriate authorities. And we usually put particular emphasis on registering trademarks in China, because doing so is an easy, obvious, and relatively economical first step in IP protection. But for those selling or manufacturing products in China,

China corporate litigation

How to Fight Back Against China IP Infringement

My law firm’s international intellectual property lawyers are always helping companies that need help dealing with IP infringement in China. As a first step, we analyze the situation and propose a course of action. The following is an amalgamation of memoranda, done to convey both what goes on out there and how to deal with

China movie business

Media Piracy and the End of Chinese Cultural Exceptionalism

A reader sent me a link to a report on Media Piracy in Emerging Economies. The report, put out by the American Assembly at Columbia University, “is the first independent, large-scale study of music, film and software piracy in emerging economies, with a focus on Brazil, India, Russia, South Africa, Mexico and Bolivia.” It is

China counterfeit lawyers

How to Stop China Counterfeiting or at Least Reduce it

A number of our clients manufacture products that sell for relatively high prices due in large part to distinguishing characteristics of our client’s company or product. In other words, the exact kind of product counterfeiters love to copy. Not sure why, but we have been spending more time lately in helping our clients prevent counterfeiting

China trademark lawyer

How to Stop Your Supplier from Becoming Your Competitor

Renaud Anjoran over at the Quality Inspection Tips blog recently wrote on How your Chinese suppliers might become your competitors. Renaud provides excellent suggestions for preventing your foreign product supplier from competing with you, based on his notes from a talk by Paul Melkebeke, Samsonite’s Vice President for Asia. Melkebeke talked of how Samsonite protects