Digital manufacturing

How to Find the Right Manufacturer AND Get Good Product

A new client of ours from Spain recently sent us an article and asked whether it made “good sense” for both China and Mexico. My response was, “yes, it most certainly does ” The article [link no longer exists] nicely lays out the following “surefire steps to ensure you work with a factory that can

Getting your product made in China

How to Buy Goods From China: Take These Five Steps

Contents of this Article: Find a Suitable Supplier Clearly Define Your Expected Product Negotiate Reasonable Payment Terms Control Your Product Quality in the Factory Formalize the Process Contact Harris Sliwoski Before Buying Goods From China Met recently with Renaud Anjoran in Shenzhen. Renaud is the founder of Sofeast, a quality assurance firm that assists foreign

China Quality Control

China QC Inspections

I have always thought it a mistake for a company not to have a quality control inspection done of its China products before shipping. The Quality Inspection Blog has a post, How much does an inspection in China cost? that puts the need for QC inspections into focus. The post starts out talking about the

China lawyers

Why NDAs Do Not Work for China, but NNN Agreements Do

Why NDAs Fail in China: Use an NNN Agreement Instead A few years ago, in The Power of China-Specific NNN Agreements, I explained why China NNN Agreements are so important when doing business with China. Within a few hours of that post, one of my law firm’s China lawyers pointed out that if we are

international manufacturing lawyers

China Product Outsourcing: The Legal Basics

Protecting Your Business When Manufacturing in China This latest recession has caused many businesses to look to cut costs by outsourcing their product manufacturing to China. Unfortunately, many of these companies now engaging in outsourcing their manufacturing to China fail to take the legal steps necessary to protect themselves. When problems arise, they can do

The China price

The Perils of Chasing Cheap Labor

The Real Cost of Cheap Labor I once ended up on the same Qingdao-Seoul-Seattle flight as a long-time client  whose company had been hugely successful in China in an industry where just about every other foreign company had failed. The long flights gave us a great opportunity to talk about business in China. He told

China NNN Agreements

The Power of China-Specific NNN Agreements

NNN Agreements vs. NDA Agreements for China Western-style non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) don’t work for protecting your IP from China. China-specific non-disclosure, non-compete, non-circumvent (NNN) agreements are vastly superior for safeguarding your IP. This post will explain what makes China-specific NNN agreements work so well at protecting IP and when to use them. Someone on our