Visit Your Overseas Factories One of the things my law firm’s international manufacturing lawyers always tell our clients is to visit their overseas factories, if at all possible. Factory Visits Show You Care Such a trip is critical for the following four reasons: Visiting your foreign factory emphasizes that you care. Why should your factory
One of the joys of blogging is finding gems in unlikely places. The gem is a post entitled Jewelry and Gold Plating Problems: Can You Trust Chinese Factories? I say unlikely because neither (nor I would bet, most of our readers) have much interest in jewelry plating problems. The post is written by a Shenzhen-based
Indemnification is “to make compensation for incurred hurt, loss, or damage” and our clients often request indemnity to protect against a product that injures people or infringes on some third party’s intellectual property right. Seeking such indemnification makes complete sense because the last thing you want when you buy a product from overseas is to
Chinese companies have recently started showing great interest in purchasing advanced equipment from foreign manufacturers. That China is now Germany’s largest trading partner is good proof of this. The Chinese businesses that have made China the factory of the world have pushed their manpower and outdated tools to the limit and for them to continue
When drafting manufacturing agreements our manufacturing lawyers used to send our clients a six-page questionnaire to tease out the client’s China manufacturing plans. But no matter how hard we tried, there were almost always important questions our client either did not understand or simply could not answer. We eventually realized dumping six pages of questions
When I was in Shenzhen last month, I had a long lunch with China manufacturing guru, Renaud Anjoran of Sofeast. During our lunch, we talked extensively about what we are seeing in China manufacturing, particularly in the electronics and Internet of Things sectors. As we always do, we shared horror stories and from those the lessons
Just read an article, What do Suppliers do with Rejected Products? that starts with the following nightmare scenario: Imagine you are walking down a busy street in China full of vendors. Suddenly, you notice something: your company’s flagship product, distinctive luxury handbags, is being sold by a random merchant you have never met. Upon closer inspection,
One common mistake U.S. companies make is failing to understand that patents and trademarks are territorial.* That is, these forms of intellectual property provide protection only in the country in which they were registered. If a U.S. company has not registered its patents and trademarks in China, a Chinese company is free to make use
Chinese factories are notorious for making their own-label products that bear a strong resemblance to the products they make for their foreign company manufacturing companies. And here's the thing: it is perfectly legal for your Chinese factory to copy your products unless you have a contract forbidding it. And it is also perfectly legal for them to use your brand name in China (or even to register it as their own trademark) if you have not registered your brand name as a China trademark.
The U.S. Government has been cracking the whip on products illegally transshipped from China. Chinese companies and U.S. importers of their products often tell me they are not concerned about U.S. Antidumping (“AD”) and Countervailing Duty (“CVD”) orders because they can “just get around those orders by transshipping our products to Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Sri
