Last week, I wrote about how Chinese companies use fake investment scams to trick foreign companies into turning over their IP. This post goes into additional detail regarding the China fake investment scam, but it also goes beyond it to ecompass the various IP theft scams our China lawyers have been seeing in the last couple of years.
One of the more sophisticated and costly scams we see is what we call the "investing in your business to steal your IP scam." We see this scam maybe 4-5 times a year, mostly before they happen and mostly before the company realizes a scam is about to take place.
Our job as lawyers is to write an enforceable international distribution contract to protect them, both in the foreign country and at home.
This post sets out the four most important steps you should take to protect your IP from China. These steps will minimize the likelihood of you having a China IP problem and maximize your chances of prevailing should such a problem actually arise.
This post explains how to protect your product from China when having your product made in China. One of the first things our international manufacturing lawyers do when working with a company having products made in China is to figure out the contracts and IP registrations that will ensure our client's intellectual property and other rights will be protected against its Chinese manufacturer and the rest of the world.
International Manufacturing Turmoil Increases International Manufacturing Risks With the increasing risks of manufacturing in China, our international manufacturing lawyers are being contacted by many companies seeking legal help after all has been lost. These are mostly companies that moved their manufacturing to “bad” Chinese manufacturers or to other countries in an effort to reduce their
As I noted in my previous post on China NNN agreements, for enforcement purposes you must make sure your China NNN agreement has teeth. To understand how enforcement works under Chinese law, we need to do a little work. The first point to realize is that the standard approach for enforcing an IP contract under the common law (this is the law in the United States and the UK and most of the British world) has no application under Chinese law. In the common law system, lawyers are mostly concerned with two issues. First, the rule that disfavors liquidated damage provisions. Second, the law/equity distinction that allows only for injunctive relief when a law (damages) remedy is not available.
A new client the other day asked me what it should be doing to protect its IP in China and I asked whether they wanted the ten minute version or the ten day version. Fortunately for the both of us (and not surprisingly), they chose the ten minute version and the below is basically that.
For some brands, trademarking Chinese words or phrases might hit just the right note in terms of image. BBQ pork buns sound appetizing, but describing them as char siu bao provides a special touch. And for established brands from the Chinese-speaking world, Chinese words may already be an indelible part of their identity. Yet the
China NNN Agreements up close. Our China lawyers often receive last minute emails sseeking a China NNN Agreement fast.
