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China NNN Agreements
Smart NNN Agreements Protect Your Valuable Intellectual Property
With intellectual property (IP) theft on the rise, organizations conducting business with Chinese companies — especially manufacturing companies — need well-crafted agreements to protect their assets.
At Harris Sliwoski, we have a team of experienced international lawyers with in-depth knowledge of Chinese non-disclosure, non-use, and non-circumvention (NNN) agreements. We’ve written thousands of NNNs for our clients, so we know what it takes to create one that stands up to the scrutiny of Chinese law and gives you the maximum protection possible.
Contact UsWhat Is an NNN Agreement?
An NNN agreement is a non-disclosure, non-use and non-circumvention contract that ensures confidentiality when conducting business with Chinese companies. While it contains provisions for enforcement under Chinese laws, the NNN’s primary goal is to protect your business’s intellectual property by preventing a Chinese company from engaging in certain activities that would adversely impact your brand and bottom line.
Non-disclosure means the Chinese company cannot reveal the private information about your business you provide, such as schematics for a new product in development. Under the non-use provision, the Chinese company may not use your intellectual property for any purpose except those in the agreement that directly benefit your organization. Finally, non-circumvention restricts the Chinese company’s ability to sell products they manufacture on your behalf directly to your customers and undercut your prices.
How Are NNN Agreements Different From Non-Disclosure Agreements?
Traditional domestic non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) aren’t sufficient for enforcement in Chinese courts — only an NNN agreement meeting China’s NNN rules is. Some reasons for this distinction include:
- NNNs provide for resolution under the proper courts.
- NNNs are in the right language to promote understanding and enforcement.
- NNNs contain a sufficient amount of contract damage provisions in the event of a breach.
NNNs also differ from trade secret agreements. They essentially hold a Chinese company accountable if it discloses your relevant IP, copies it or attempts to use it for competitive purposes. Plus, NNNs are most useful during the initial negotiation stages with a Chinese company. Once you move forward, changing needs often require a manufacturing contract or product development agreement.
How We Approach NNN Agreements in China
Harris Sliwoski writes more NNNs than any other style of business contract. That volume of experience and familiarity makes us uniquely qualified to do it right. A sample NNN agreement for China from Harris Sliwoski includes:
- One flat fee: Our pricing is straightforward. You pay one upfront charge for us to handle the entire process, from creation to revisions.
- An enforceable scope: We keep our NNN agreements broad enough to provide protection since a narrow scope can limit your enforcement rights.
- Enforcement under Chinese courts: All the NNN agreements we write call for dispute resolution in Chinese courts so you can enforce the agreement and collect compensation when necessary.
- Chinese translation: Our team speaks fluent Chinese, including Cantonese and Mandarin dialects, so we can write NNNs that prevent misunderstandings and promote clarity.
- Appropriate contract damages provisions: We draw on our experience and your unique business details to determine what’s fair, preventing you from incurring a loss and the Chinese courts from viewing damages as a penalty.
Contact Harris Sliwoski for more information about our China NNN Agreement services.
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Dan Harris is a leading authority on China’s legal system and business environment. In addition to making frequent media appearances to speak on Chinese legal issues, they co-author the China Law Blog, which consistently ranks as one of the top English-language legal blogs in the world.
The ABA (American Bar Association) Journal named the China Law Blog as one of the 20 best legal blogs of all time, and for five years in a row the Journal’s readers voted it the best in its category. The China Law Blog offers readers a wealth of information about the types of clients we serve and the legal challenges we help them solve every day.
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