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
Foreign companies doing business in China fairly often ask our China employment lawyers whether they can legally hire someone who has passed the legal retirement age. The short answer is that doing so is legal, but somewhat complicated. Consider this hypothetical. Employer employs Employee (male) for several years. Employee turns 60, the statutory retirement age,
Contents of this Article: How the new Foreign Investment Law will change intellectual property rights for foreign companies in China Overview of foreign direct investment (FDI) protections for intellectual property rights (IPR) in mainland China FDI Reform: the New National Statute Will Overhaul Current FDI Protections for IPR The FIL Overhaul Will Maintain and Build
Christmas morning and I find myself responding to companies that recently got worthless product from China, in what is typical pretty much at the end of every year. I think these things increase at the end of the year because the Chinese company that sends the worthless product has decided to shut down at the
Had lunch yesterday with two long-time friends, both international lawyers who have spent many years living and working in China. During a discussion about an international real estate matter on which one of the lawyers was working, someone asked if we remembered back when foreigners were able to freely buy real estate in China. We all
As regular readers of this blog know, we are very much down on Hong Kong as an international business center. See Hong Kong for International Business: Stick a Fork in It (August 13) and Hong Kong for International Business: Stick a Fork in It, Part 2 (October 22). We have seen and we believe we
Pull out and look at your contract with your Chinese counter-party. Does it have a force majeure clause? If it does not, put it away and count yourself lucky. If it has a force majeure clause, pour gasoline or lighter fluid or nail polish all over it and light it. JUST KIDDING. Well only sort
You Need an NNN Agreement for China IP Protection Relying on a standard Western-style NDA to protect your IP from China sets you up for IP theft because NDAs have critical limitations that render them ineffective for China. You need an NNN agreement tailored specifically for China. This post explains what an NNN agreement is,
Three months ago, in Hong Kong for International Business, Stick a Fork in It, we predicted the slow demise of Hong Kong as an international business center. Many wrote us to say they agreed. Many wrote us to say they vehemently disagreed. Those who disagreed argued that we had underestimated the grit and the resilience
Got an email the other day from a good-sized company the other day asking about the benefit of having manufacturing contracts with companies in countries like Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Malaysia. The email went something like this (I say “something” because I’ve changed it so nobody will ever be able to identify it): I am
