Yesterday, a long-term European client of ours asked me about the state of manufacturing in China. In response I asked him if he wanted the long or the short version. When he replied, “short,” my response was “really mixed, but overall really bad.” He then asked me to give him the short version how foreign
The below post was written by one of our China lawyers who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of what might happen to him/her the next time he/she goes to China. So my name is going on this because I wrote the introduction and I have no plans to go to China until the CCP
For more than a year we’ve been relentlessly writing about how China has become so much riskier for manufacturing and how so many companies that manufacture in China are desperately looking to move their manufacturing elsewhere. I predict that at least 50 percent of the American and European companies that do all of their manufacturing
Both here on the blog and in real life with our clients, our China lawyers are always touting the benefits of licensing products, intellectual property, brands, technology and content to China. Licensing deals make sense under many circumstances, but they make particular sense in situations where it is difficult or impossible to get your product,
Way back in the pre-coronavirus days — October 30-2019 — in Do Not Let Force Majeure be a Major Force In Your China Contract, we did a post warning of force majeure provisions in contracts with Chinese companies. That post began with the following warning/joke; Pull out and look at your contract with your Chinese
Yet again yesterday, the number of coronavirus cases and deaths reached a record number. In other words, the virus continues to spread ever faster and until it begins to slow down there is literally no end in sight. And yet, yesterday was also the day some Chinese factories were to open again for business. In
When I was 16, I lived for a year in Istanbul, Turkey, and it was then and there that I decided I wanted to become an international lawyer (if I was not going to make it as a professional basketball player). This was back in the days when you were considered international if you had
For the last week or so, our China lawyers have been inundated by requests from employers in China for help in dealing with the many employment law issues created by the coronavirus has created. Just yesterday, we wrote about that in Coronavirus and What China Employers Should be Doing (and Not Doing) Now. Our China
Many months ago, an American company emailed me in a panic after reading a Linkedin post “your law firm” wrote on the need to register your brand name as a trademark in China as soon as possible. This company and I corresponded back and forth about why securing trademarks in China is so important and
I have a good friend with whom I formerly worked at a big law firm. He is smart as hell and a terrific lawyer. He is now the General Counsel and EVP at a big company. But when we were practicing law together, he would often talk seriously and wistfully about leaving the practice of
